BP chief's annual pay more than doubles to £10m

The boss of BP saw his pay more than double to £10m last year after the oil giant reported record profits on soaring energy prices.

Bernard Looney's pay and bonuses compare to £4.46m in the previous year.

This week, Mr Looney's former rival Ben van Beurden, the ex-chief executive of Shell, also reported a huge pay bump, rising more than 50% to £9.7m.

Both of the energy firms have gained as oil and gas prices spiked following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

BP and others in the industry have faced criticism over the extent of their profits at a time when high energy prices have helped push up the cost of living.

In late 2021, Mr Looney said high oil and gas prices turned his company into a "cash machine".

Most recently, BP reported that full-year profits had more than doubled to a record $27.7bn (£23bn).

The firm also announced that while it would continue to invest in a transition to green energy, it was scaling back plans to cut carbon emissions by reducing oil and gas output. BP said it needed to invest in oil and gas to meet demand.

The biggest jump in Mr Looney's pay packet came from performance-related shares worth £6m, which is 54% of the maximum he could have received had he hit a number of targets.

If he had, Mr Looney could have reaped £11.4m from the shares, taking his total pay to £15.4m, and may have risked provoking a backlash from investors, according to the Sunday Times.

It reported that BP has been consulting shareholders about the award and had been guided that a higher payment would not be welcomed by investors.

Mr Looney's basic pay increased by 4.25% to £1.3m. BP expects Mr Looney's wage to rise by the same amount for the current year which, it said in its annual report, is "below that of the wider UK workforce".