More than £400,000 was given to the Conservatives by donors connected to the oil and gas industry as ministers considered the future of North Sea exploration.
The money was pledged between July last year and the end of March, according to research by DeSmog and the Guardian.
The donations were made as the UK Government was reviewing the future of North Sea exploration licensing, amid signals it could stop granting permission to new proposals, ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
In March, ministers confirmed that they would not ban exploration licensing rounds, although future auctions would be subjected to greater scrutiny through the introduction of a “climate compatibility checkpoint”.
The move was announced as a £16 billion deal has been given to the North Sea industry to boost its transition to a low-carbon future.
Many of the donations made to the Conservatives in the period were from long-term backers of the party, including Amjad Bseisu, the chief executive of EnQuest, and Balmoral Group Holdings, which has also previously given money to other parties.
The Guardian said it understood the companies making donations, or whose senior personnel were listed as donors, made no direct representations to the government over the award of oil and gas licences, and that ministers held no meetings with the companies in the past year.
A Scottish Conservatives spokesman said: “The Scottish Conservatives will always stand up for the North Sea oil and gas industry and the 100,000 Scottish jobs it supports.
“The UK Government’s Transition Deal will help to protect those jobs as the industry transitions to cleaner, greener forms of energy.”
A spokeswoman for the UK Government’s department of business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) said: “The UK is working hard to drive down demand for fossil fuels and eliminate our contribution to climate change, but we also know there will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas, as recognised by the independent climate change committee.
“BEIS held two roundtables with environmental groups on oil and gas licensing ahead of announcing our landmark North Sea Transition Deal, which sets out plans to back the oil and gas industry to transform while supporting tens of thousands of jobs.”