BP CEO takes huge pay cut as profit slashed at FTSE 100 giant
The chief executive of BP has taken a £2.3m pay cut as profit was slashed at the FTSE 100 giant.
Murray Auchincloss received a pay packet of £5.4m for 2024, down from the £7.7m he received in 2023.
The drop came amid a more than £1.1m cut to his bonus to £734,000, and a £1.6m fall in share-related payments to £2.8m.
His base salary rose by about £450,000 to £1.5m.
Last month it was revealed that BP’s net income fell to $8.9bn (£7.2bn) in 2024, down from $13.8bn the previous year.
The giant said lower oil and gas prices, as well as reduced profit from its refineries, had impacted its earnings.
Writing in BP’s annual report, interim remuneration committee chair Tushar Morzaria said: “2024 has been a challenging year operationally but one in which BP has set the foundations for growth as a simpler, more efficient business.”
He added: “Nevertheless, it was a difficult year in parts of our customers and products businesses, particularly in refining.
“Margins were lower and the significant power outage at our refinery in Whiting had a direct impact on our operational and financial performance during the year, which is in turn reflected in remuneration outcomes.
“The macroeconomic environment and lower prices added to a challenging backdrop.”
BP retreats from green targets and increases fossil fuel spending
The annual report comes after Morning Wire reported last month that BP is to dial up its spending on oil and gas by $10bn (£7.9bn), slash its investment into renewable energy and offload $20bn of underperforming assets as part of a major strategic overhaul that aims to boost its beleaguered share price.
In a much anticipated – and delayed – announcement from boss Murray Auchincloss, the British petrochemical giant told shareholders that it would no longer hold itself to the ambitious transition goals it set itself set five years ago.
Under Auchincloss’s predecessor, BP pledged in 2020 to reduce its oil and gas output by 40 per cent and simultaneously ramp up its renewable target over the following 10 years. It also pledged eventually to become fully net zero by 2050.
However the announcement last month – made just a fortnight after activist investor Elliot Management took up £3.8bn stake in the London-listed oil major – represented a sharp departure from those goals, and brought the group’s energy mix closer in line to that of UK rival Shell.
The group has faced mounting pressure from shareholders to bolster its more profitable oil and gas divisions at the expense of the renewable strategy set under former chief executive Bernard Looney.
Its share price has lagged well behind those of its main rivals, falling 14 per cent in the two years between 2023 and 2025. Shell’s share price jumped 10 per cent over that same period.