Former Shell CEO paid £9.7m amid record profit

Former Shell boss Ben van Beurden received a pay package of £9.7m last year, up more than 50 percent from 2021.

His pay was revealed in the oil and gas giant’s annual report and accounts.

Shell reported the highest annual profits in its 115-year history last year after a surge in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Massive profits made by energy firms have added to pressure to tax them more as households struggle with rising energy bills.

Shell made a record $39.9bn (£32.2bn) profit in 2022, double the previous year’s total.

When its results came out in February, opposition parties said the company’s profits were “outrageous” and that the government was letting energy firms “off the hook” on taxation.

Read also: Polaris Bank unveils N5b mortgage support for electrical material dealers

In 2021, van Beurden was paid the equivalent of £6.3m – he was paid in euros because Shell had yet to move its headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain.

He was replaced on 1 January this year by Wael Sawan, the former head of Shell’s gas and renewables business.

The annual report said Sawan was appointed on a salary of £1.4m, although performance-related payments can often add to the overall pay package considerably. Mr van Beurden’s salary was £1.4m in 2022.

van Beurden’s pay package was criticised by human rights and environment charity Global Witness.

“It’s a sign of just how broken our energy system is that Shell and other fossil fuel companies have made record-breaking profits from an energy crisis that’s forcing families to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table,” said Alice Harrison, fossil fuels campaign leader at Global Witness.

“We’re calling on the UK government to implement a people-first windfall tax in next week’s Spring Budget, which includes executive bonuses.”

Dean Bruckner, policy director at the UK Shareholders’ Association, which campaigns for shareholders’ rights, said he had concerns that van Beurden’s pay package looked “indefensible”.

He said pay settlements such as this risk bringing “the corporate world into disrepute”.