BP boss Bernard Looney takes home £1.7m after bonuses axed
BP’s boss Bernard Looney was paid £1.7m for his first year in charge of the oil giant as the firm axed all of its bonuses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Irishman, who took over the firm at the beginning of 2020, could have been in line for £11m in remuneration, but the crisis put paid to that.
Instead, he and chairman Helge Lund elected to give 20 per cent of their salaries to mental health charities.
In total, Looney received about £1.2m in salary, and a further £351,000 in share options, BP’s annual report revealed.
By contrast, Ben van Beurden, the boss of rival oil major Shell, saw his pay package fall 42 per cent to $7m.
The decision to axe the bonus structure for the year came as the FTSE blue chip fell to a $5.7bn loss amid a near-total collapse in oil prices.
In response, the firm halved its dividend and slashed the value of its oil and gas assets by $20bn.
At the same time, Looney set in motion a wholesale restructuring plan to pivot BP towards low-emissions energy sources.
This meant cutting 10,000 jobs across the business, as well as committing to plans to cut oil and gas output 40 per cent by the end of this decade.
With oil prices now hovering around pre-pandemic highs, BP’s share price has picked up around 20 per cent this year so far.