LONDON, 10 Mar: Total pay for BP\u2019s CEO more than doubled to $12 million last year, the energy giant said Friday, as soaring energy costs allowed oil and gas companies to rake in record profits while squeezing households and small businesses.
\nLondon-based BP\u2019s disclosure came a day after rival Shell reported a similar multimillion-dollar pay package for its top executive on the heels of both companies posting their highest-ever annual earnings last month.
\nBP said in its annual report that CEO Bernard Looney was paid a total of 10 million pounds ($12 million) in 2022, up from 4.5 million pounds the previous year. Looney\u2019s pay package includes a cash bonus of 2.4 million pounds and 6 million pounds in bonus company stock.
\nBP reported in February that its profit doubled to $28 billion as Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine sent oil and gas prices soaring.
\nFat profits at fossil fuel giants and big salaries for top executives have spurred demands for the companies to do more to shield consumers from high energy costs that have fueled decades-high inflation and ratcheted up utility bills.
\nActivist groups such as Global Witness and some opposition lawmakers in Britain have called for expanding taxes on the windfall profits of energy companies and taxing bonuses.
\nIt\u2019s a \u201ctwisted irony\u201d that a wealthy minority got even richer \u201cprecisely because bills have been so unaffordable for the majority,\u201d said Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior campaigner at Global Witness.
\nBritain\u2019s Liberal Democrat party on Thursday called for a one-off \u201cbonanza bonus\u201d tax for energy company executives after Shell reported that then-CEO Ben van Beurden\u2019s pay package jumped by half in 2022, to nearly $12 million, thanks to a record $40 billion annual profit.
\nThe proposed tax is similar to a levy on bankers\u2019 bonuses that the U.K. government imposed in 2009-10 amid the fallout of the global financial crisis.
\n\u201cIt is outrageous that oil and gas bosses are raking in millions in bonuses while families struggle to heat their homes,\u201d party leader Ed Davey said. \u201cWhether it is executive bonuses or soaring profits, the money being made out of Putin\u2019s illegal war should be helping struggling families not oil and gas barons.\u201d
\nThe BP committee that sets executive pay said it has \u201ccarefully sought to moderate outcomes\u201d and its decisions \u201creflect a sensible approach.\u201d AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON, 10 Mar: Total pay for BP\u2019s CEO more than doubled to $12 million last year, the energy giant said Friday, as soaring energy costs allowed oil and gas companies to rake in record profits while squeezing households and small businesses. London-based BP\u2019s disclosure came a day after rival Shell reported a similar multimillion-dollar pay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}