(Adds details from report, background)
March 11 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell's Chief
Executive Ben van Beurden pay package nearly halved in 2020, a
year in which the oil major's profit tumbled because of low oil
prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Van Beurden, who became CEO in 2014, oversaw sharp growth in
Shell’s oil and gas output following the 2016 acquisition of BG
Group for $53 billion.
But an unprecedented hit to the energy sector last year,
knocked oil prices into negative territory for the first time in
history, and forced major players to cut dividend payouts and
management pay to weather the storm.
Royal Dutch's profit tumbled to a two-decade low last year.
In 2019, Van Beurden’s remuneration had also dropped by 51%.
Van Beurden's total remuneration for 2020 was 5.8 million
euros ($6.93 million), compared with about 10 million euros the
year before, the company disclosed in its annual report https://reports.shell.com/annual-report/2020/servicepages/downloads/files/shell-annual-report-2020.pdf
on Thursday.
On Thursday, the oil major also separately announced that
former BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie would become its next chairman
to succeed Charles Holliday, who will step down on May 18 after
being in the role for six years.
($1 = 0.8375 euros)
(Reporting by Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by
Uttaresh.V, Bernard Orr)