BP CEO Bob Dudley earns pay rise to take home £9.5m

The group’s annual report shows Mr Dudley in 2017 took home a $1.85m salary, an annual bonus of $1.49m and $7.78m in performance shares for a weekly income of around £257,700.

However, his total take home pay could have been much higher at $17.6m had BP’s remuneration committee not “used its discretion” and applied a more demanding new policy to his share award early.

It follows shareholder anger at Mr Dudley’s pay in 2015 when almost 60% of BP shareholders 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 $13.4m award compares to $11.9m in 2016.

“BP performed strongly in 2017 and over the past three years, generating increasing returns for our shareholders,” said Dame Ann Dowling, chair of BP’s remuneration committee., said: “In deciding executive pay for this period using our new policy, including our considered use of discretion, we believe we have fairly reflected BP’s performance, the experience of shareholders and wider context.”

In February BP cheered one of the strongest years in the company’s recent history after a hike in the cost of crude helped annual profits more than double.

The energy giant saw underlying replacement cost profit - BP’s preferred income measure - soar to 6.2 billion dollars (£4.4bn) for 2017, up from 2.6 billion dollars (£1.9bn) the year before.

BP is among a string of oil majors benefiting from climbing prices, having seen Brent crude hit 70 dollars per barrel in January - its highest level in more than three years.

Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said: “2017 was a year which saw delivery and growth across all our businesses.

“This was an impressive performance from Bob Dudley and his great team, now fully into their stride.

“The company is in a great position to grow and has a clear strategy for the energy transition.”