The shock exit of former CEO Bernard Looney last year and accusations of “profiteering” have done little to bring about a change in the oil supermajor’s executive pay policy, as it handed new boss Murray Auchincloss £8 million last year.
The firm said Auchincloss’ pay was “broadly in line” with his predecessor Bernard Looney, who shocked the City in September when he announced his sudden departure from BP after admitting he was not “fully transparent'' in his disclosures about past relationships with colleagues. In December, the firm revealed it would strip Looney of £32 million worth of bonuses due to his “serious misconduct”.
He still owns about £6.4 million worth of shares, which his contract states he must hold for two years after his exit, and got £1.1 million as a base salary for the portion of 2023 where he was in charge.
Former finance boss Auchincloss took over, initially as interim boss before getting the full-time job. BP said it was “in our shareholders’ interest” to make him one of the top-paid bosses on the FTSE 100. He was handed a £1.45 million base salary, a £1.8 million bonus and £4.7 million worth of shares. His salary will remain the same for 2024.
But Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness, said:⯠“The millions paid out to BP's CEO contrast with the millions of Brits in energy poverty, showing the sickening reality of our broken energy system. People everywhere, struggling to feed their families or heat their homes, have every right to be angry at BP’s huge profits and payouts.
“BP and its CEO count among the biggest winners of Russia's war in Ukraine. BP, which still owns a big chunk of the Russian oil company Rosneft, profiteered massively from the resulting turbulence in energy markets, and now the firm has decided to give its CEO a multi-million, fat cat pat on the back whilst most people are living paycheck to paycheck.”
"The government is missing the opportunity to introduce a serious windfall tax and CEO bonus tax”.
She also noted that the £8 million salary would take an average UK worker 230 years to earn.
Andrew Speke, spokesperson for the High Pay Centre, said: "This huge pay award for BP's CEO is a damning indictment of an economic model which is failing both consumers and the planet. While households in the UK have faced rocketing bills, which have plunged millions in fuel poverty, BP somehow can afford to pay its CEO a figure close to 250 times the typical British worker.”
Meanwhile at a global level we are already starting to see the damaging impact of climate change. In such a context governments need to accelerate the transition to clean energy, because the alternative is companies like BP enriching their executives and shareholders, while households and the planet pay the price.
BP said: “Murray has been an advocate of BP’s strategy to transition to an integrated energy company and remains focused on delivering exceptional performance – this was clearly evident when he undertook the interim CEO role.
“The committee believes it was in our shareholders’ interest that Murray’s remuneration was set at a level that appropriately reflected the responsibility and scope of the role, while motivating and retaining him during this interim period, thus ensuring a continued focus on delivering our long-term strategy.”
