Shell share price: Chief executive’s pay package takes hit in 2015

Royal Dutch Shell’s (LON:RDSA) executive Ben van Beurden received a much smaller pay package for last year as compared with 2014, the company has revealed. The news follows the Anglo-Dutch major’s results last month when Shell posted a hefty fall in quarterly earnings, with significantly lower oil and gas prices pressuring the group’s upstream performance.

Shell’s share price has been little changed in London this morning, having inched 0.09 percent lower to 1,688.00p as of 09:07 GMT. The decline is largely in line with losses in the blue-chip FTSE 100 index which currently stands 0.02 percent in the red at 6,145.11 points.
Shell disclosed in its annual report published today that Ben van Beurden’s remuneration stood at €5.58 million last year, down from the €24.2 million he received for the previous year. The significant fall in the amount, however, was primarily due to a fall in van Beurden’s pension which was positively affected in the prior-year period on account of his promotion to chief executive.

“Shell’s executive compensation reflects delivery of our strategy, measured by both short-term and long-term targets,” a company spokesman told the Financial Times. “There is a clear alignment between the company’s performance and our compensation policies.”
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant, which recently completed its takeover of former FTSE 100 peer BG Group, reported last month that the quarterly earnings from its upstream business had fallen over 70 percent to $493 million in the last three months of 2015.
In its annual report, Shell warned that if oil and gas prices remained at the levels observed in the beginning of the year, there was “the potential for our Upstream and Integrated Gas segments to incur a loss”.
“Additionally, low oil and gas prices have resulted, and could continue to result, in the debooking of proved oil or gas reserves, if they become uneconomic in this type of price environment,” the company pointed out.
As of 09:35 GMT, Thursday, 10 March, Royal Dutch Shell Plc ‘A’ share price is 1,686.50p.