BP cancels its bonuses after Gulf disaster
BP scaled back its staff pay-outs in light of the Gulf of Mexico disaster last year, according to its annual report released yesterday.
Chief executive Bob Dudley, who took the top job in October after Tony Hayward stepped down, has not received a performance bonus following the Gulf spill, which killed 11 people and could cost BP up to $40bn.
Chief financial officer Byron Grote will get 30 per cent of his bonus, or $207,000, to reflect strong performance in parts of the company not linked to the Gulf spill.
Refining and marketing chief Iain Conn also got a £104,000 bonus.
“While the tragedy of lost lives and environmental damage remains foremost in everyone’s minds, the committee also wished to fairly acknowledge the good business results in many parts of BP, delivered in the most testing of times,” said remuneration chairman DeAnne Julius in the report.
Hayward did not receive a performance bonus but was paid £1.08m on leaving BP – a years’ salary plus £30,000.
The firm trimmed its staff numbers by 600 to 79,700 during the year as part of a long-term programme. It said it dismissed 552 workers for breaking its code of conduct last year, up from 524 in 2009.
Excluding the Gulf disaster, BP’s spill rate rose 44 per cent by volume to 1.7m litres in 2010. The number of oil spills of one barrel or more rose from 234 to 261 during the year.
The firm said in its report that it hopes to eventually restart operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The deepwater drilling ban in the Gulf helped pull production volumes down four per cent to 3.82m barrels per day, the company added. BP shares closed 1.4 per cent higher at 491.5p yesterday.