Shell boss Ben van Beurden bags a bigger bonus despite falling oil price

Royal Dutch Shell boss Ben van Beurden got a bigger bonus in 2015 — up 6% to €3.5 million (£2.7 million) — even though a tumbling oil price sank the shares by 30% last year.

The chief executive landed an overall pay deal of £5.6 million — although this was lower than 2014, when his package was swollen to €24.2 million by tax handouts and pension payments on taking the helm at the oil major.

Shell’s latest annual report showed his 2015 basic pay up to €1.47 million, but his annual bonus rising from €3.3 million to €3.5 million for a year in which van Beurden masterminded the oil giant’s mega-merger with rival BG.

The remuneration report praised the firm’s chief for “bold decisions” such as the abandoning of Arctic drilling off the cost of Alaska as well as cancelling the Carmon Creek oil sands project in Canada.

Despite the bigger bonus, the Shell boss lost out on long-term share awards, which fell from €863,000 to €163,000 last year.

Van Beurden’s pay was well behind that of BP’s Bob Dudley, whose package rose 20% to $19.6 million last year.