Jewish eco-activists The Yes Men – who have made a name for themselves by highlighting corporate greed and social injustices, have struck again – and this time their target was an oil conference in Canada.

Posing as executives from ExxonMobil and the National Petroleum Council, Mike Bonano and Andy Bichlbaum delivered an outrageous speech – under the assumed names Sheppard Wolff and Florian Osenberg - to delegates at the conference. In the speech, they suggested in deadpan fashion that the industry could “keep fuel flowing” by transforming dead people into oil.

They went on to tell the attentive oilmen of a new product which would be made from human flesh called Vivoleum. “With fossil fuels comes a greater chance of disaster, but that means more feedstock for Vivoleum,” said Osenberg aka Bonanno. “Fuel will continue to flow for those of us who are left.”

However, the pair were soon removed from the stage by conference organisers after asking attendees to light candles in honour of a dead person whose remains had been used to make the new fuel.

Outside, they continued to keep up the act when talking to reporters, before the police were called.

The Yes Men achieved mass notoriety after Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World News posing as a representative from Dow Chemical, having been mistaken for a real Dow employee by the corporation.

A documentary film about the pair was released in 2005.