Scottish Independence: Yes Voters and Salmond Constantly Misquote My Oil Figures says Sir Ian Wood

Sir Ian Wood, one of Britain's most prominent oil and gas figures, has slammed the Scottish National Party and its leader Alex Salmond for repeatedly misquoting him on reserve estimates and therefore skewing the argument for independence.

Wood, who says the SNP's oil reserve claims are around 45% to 60% too high, said while he is not political, he felt he has to speak out, as the Yes campaign and Salmond had consistently misquoted figures from his independent review that was released earlier this year.

"I was drawn into this [discussion] because they were misquoting figures from my own review," said Wood in the Daily Mail.

"I am thoroughly Scottish, but also thoroughly British. This referendum vote is forever, there is no going back. This vote is not for this generation – I'm 72 for goodness sake.

"It is for my children, for my grandchildren. I want them to live in a Scotland where youngsters have a chance of a good job and of being prosperous. The best chance they have of that is as part of a strong United Kingdom and get the best of both worlds."

Scottish people will vote in an independence referendum on 18 September, 2014, and will be asked the straight "yes/no" question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

The Scottish government claims there are 24 billion barrels of oil left in the North Sea while Wood stipulates that there are in fact only 15 billion to 16.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil left.

In keeping with the pro-independence campaign's oil production claims, N-56, which was founded by a member of the advisory board for Yes Scotland Dan Macdonald, North Sea revenues are pegged to be as high as £365bn (€456bn, $605bn) by 2041, if a series of recommendations were implemented.

However, the UK Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast is at £61.6bn between 2013/14 and 2040/41.

"Young voters must be aware that by the time they're in their 40s Scotland will have little offshore oil and gas production and this will severely hit our economy, jobs and public services," said Wood.

"The N-56 report is an insult to the Scottish people. That gets my back up, it's just pie in the sky. How can people make a critical decision on the basis of this kind of nonsense?' he says. 'It is a blatant attempt to manipulate voting sentiment."

Wood added that Salmond's claims that oil revenue would cover free prescriptions, university tuition and other issues, is wrong and that Scots should be wary of his claims.

"If you produce 200,000 barrels a day for the next 15 years, you will not have enough income. So how does the Scottish government then propose to fill this gap?" he added.