A senior executive at Cnooc, the Chinese oil company that launched a failed bid to buy Unocal earlier this year said political pressure to block China’s access to oil and gas abroad was a serious infringement of human rights.

In a rare public outburst, Yang Hua, the company’s chief financial officer and main negotiator with Unocal, said it was important for the world to grant both China and India, which have become major consumers of oil and gas, long-term energy security.