(Adds Legal & General comment, links to graphic, Breakingview,refiled to remove repetitious wording in first paragraph))
* BP investors vote to oppose CEO pay deal
* BP head of remuneration committee says will review policy
* Company says dividend policy could be reviewed
By Ron Bousso and Karolin Schaps
LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - BP's shareholders havevoted against Chief Executive Bob Dudley's $20 million pay dealfor 2015, a rare investor revolt for such a major company, afterit recorded a record annual loss.
Some 59 percent of shareholders on Thursday opposed the payand benefits package, according to preliminary figures, in starkcontrast with previous years when over 80 percent and sometimesas many as 90 percent voted in favour of the pay packages forsenior executives.
Investors gathered at the ExCel exhibition centre in eastLondon gasped when the initial voting figures were displayed onscreen in the hall during the company's annual meeting.
BP's stock was down 1.3 percent at 1450 GMT, underperformingmost rivals and the FTSE 100 index of leadingBritish shares.
Dudley's 2015 pay and benefits rose 20 percent even thoughthe company cut 5,000 jobs last year and reported steep lossesafter oil prices plunged.
While rival Royal Dutch Shell stayed in the blacklast year, its chief executive, Ben van Beurden, saw his payfall to 5.6 million euros ($6.3 million) from 24.2 millioneuros.
Even though the vote was non-binding, BP executives saidthey would consider making changes to the way remuneration iscalculated in future.
"We will ... review the overall remuneration package," AnnDowling, head of BP's remuneration committee, told shareholdersat the meeting.
"I will report on this next year with our conclusions andwith a new proposed policy based on the outcome of this review."
The review will include assessing how the remunerationcommittee deals with oil price fluctuations and will engagedirectly with major shareholders.
BP had long argued that management rewards should be basedon a combination of factors including cash generation andoperational performance.
Last year Dudley clinched a final settlement with U.S.authorities over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, whichmany investors said removed uncertainty around the firm's futurebut also led to a big provision, pushing the company into thered.
UPRISING
Britain's biggest mutual life and pensions fund, RoyalLondon Asset Management, and two shareholder advisers,Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, had allrecommended rejecting Dudley's pay.
"The 59.1 percent vote against the executive directorsremuneration is extraordinary and shows a lack of discretion byBP's board," said Ashley Hamilton Claxton, corporate governancemanager at Royal London.
Top 10 investor Legal & General Investment Management saidit voted against the remuneration package as the company "shouldhave used discretion to scale back bonus payments and long-termincentive awards to executive directors" during the year.
"We welcome the Chairman's speech to meet leading investorsand we will continue to engage with BP to develop a policybetter aligned to long term shareholder returns," LGIM said in astatement.
BP said last month that executive directors received noincrease in base salary in 2015 and that the senior leadershipwould not see salary increases this year either.
However, Dudley's total pay was boosted by a payment to hisU.S. pension scheme and deferred bonus payments.
The shareholder vote is rare but not unprecedented.
In 2012 a majority of shareholders at two British companies,WPP and Aviva, voted against proposed pay dealsfor executives in what the media become known as the"Shareholder Spring".
Aviva Chief Executive Andrew Moss left the insurer a fewdays later, but WPP's long-serving CEO Martin Sorrell is stillat the helm of the advertising group.
In Germany Volkswagen's top management board hasagreed to cut executives' bonus payments by at least 30 percent,a source said this week, as the troubed carmaker struggles toresolve a dispute over management pay in the wake of theemissions scandal..
DIVIDEND
BP had earlier struck a cautious tone on dividend payments,one of the main attractions for investors in energy firms butharder to justify in an era of lower commodity prices.
BP told investors it aimed to maintain dividends but couldreview the payout policy if oil prices remained lower forlonger.
BP, which had long said dividends were an absolute priority,said that although its goal was to maintain dividends, it "must"at the same time secure its future by investing wisely.
"Be assured that we keep this balance under regular review.Should the oil price remain lower, longer than expected, we willneed to revisit our financial framework," BP ChairmanCarl-Henric Svanberg said.
Last year Italy's ENI was the first major oilcompany to cut dividends. ($1 = 0.8866 euros)
(writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Keith Weir, GregMahlich)