The boss of BP has seen his pay double to around £10 million following Russia's invasion of Ukraine - meaning he earned over 170 times more than his average employee last year. Bernard Looney’s total pay packet increased from around £4.5 million in 2021, according to new figures.
As cruise missiles started falling on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities the price of oil and gas ticked upwards last year, peaking in August and June respectively.
The cost of gas in particular spiked for European customers. Oil is largely transported by ship around the world so it was easier for other countries to supply oil to Europe.
But there are many fewer gas ships in the world, so as supply from Russian pipelines dried up the price of gas peaked at somewhere around 15 times its historical average. BP and its rivals around the world helped avoid a massive energy crunch in Europe by supplying oil and gas to the continent.
But it came at a price as the energy they sold was much more valuable to their customers. By January this year the average household energy bill was nearly £4,300 per year – four times where it had been before the crisis.
The Government has racked up a massive bill to help households so they did not have to shoulder the full amount themselves. But BP had its best ever year as a result, with profit doubling to around 28 billion dollars (£23.4 billion).
The increase in Mr Looney's earnings was largely thanks to a long-term incentive paid to him. This means that Mr Looney’s remuneration was around 172 times higher than the average employee at the oil and gas giant.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
Jonathan Noronha-Gant, senior fossil fuels campaigner at Global Witness, said: “People everywhere struggling to feed their families or warm their homes in the harsh winter months, have every right to be angry that the CEO of a huge energy firm is netting millions of pounds in pay. This enormous pay package is a kick in the teeth to all hard-working people being faced with a cost-of-living crisis.
“Nothing could be a starker example of the gross inequality that sits at the very heart of our broken energy system. For a rich few to be seeing their already extraordinary wealth bolstered, precisely because bills have been so unaffordable for the majority, is a twisted irony. At the very least the governments should be implementing a proper windfall tax on both profits and CEO pay.”
