BP boss Bob Dudley takes home £11.2m pay packet

BP boss Bob Dudley took home 14.7 million US dollars (£11.2 million) in pay last year after the energy giant more than doubled profits off the back of rising oil prices.

The group’s annual report shows Mr Dudley in 2018 was paid a 1.85 million US dollar (£1.4 million) salary, an annual bonus of 845,000 US dollars (£646,000) and 11 million US dollars (£8.4 million) in performance shares.

However, his total take home pay could have been 2.7 million US dollars (£2 million) higher at 17.4 million US dollars (£13.3 million) had BP’s remuneration committee not used its “discretion” to apply a more demanding new policy to his share award.

In addition, Mr Dudley requested that he receive a reduced payout under BP’s long term incentive plan.

Mr Dudley attracted shareholder anger at his pay packet in 2015 when almost 60% of BP investors voted against a 20% pay hike for the chief executive.

The oil giant was then forced to propose a new “simpler and more transparent” pay deal that would mean “lower levels of reward” as it looked to fend off further investor revolts.

Mr Dudley’s 14.7 million US dollar award compares to 15.1 million US dollars (£11.6 million) in 2017.

Last month, BP said that profits more than doubled to 12.7 billion US dollars (£9.7 billion) in 2018 as it cheered a year of “transformative” deals.

The results beat expectations, with underlying replacement cost profits – BP’s preferred income measure – surging from 6.2 billion US dollars (£4.8 billion) in 2017.

The FTSE 100 stalwart has been riding the wave of a rebound in the price of crude in recent years, as well as embarking on a number of new projects which have boosted production.