BP chief Dudley's 2017 pay rises after previous year's cut

By Ron Bousso

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - BP Chief Executive BobDudley's remuneration rose to $13.4 million in 2017, when theoil and gas giant's profits more than doubled and productionsoared.

Dudley's salary was up 13 percent from 2016, when his paypackage was cut by 40 percent after a majority of shareholdersopposed the company's pay policy.

Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden saw histotal remuneration in 2017 rise to 8.9 million euros ($11million) from 8.6 million euros the previous year.

"2017 was a year which saw delivery and growth across allour businesses. This was an impressive performance from BobDudley and his great team, now fully into their stride," BPChairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said in a statement.

Dudley, 61, took the helm of BP in 2010, months after adeadly spill on the Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf ofMexico. BP has since paid more than $65 billion in clean-upcosts, fines and lawsuits, some of which are still ongoing.

After selling oil and gas fields, refineries and otherassets since the spill, 2017 marked one of the strongest yearsof growth in BP's history after it launched 7 new projects.

It plans to start six additional fields this year, whichwill help it boost its production by 900,000 barrels of oilequivalent per day (boed) by 2021. BP's production rose 12percent in 2017 to 2.47 million boed.

BP's current pay policy, which applies until 2019, includeslowering Dudley's maximum long-term payout to five times salaryfrom seven times and cutting bonus payments by a quarter.($1 = 0.8118 euros)

(Reporting by Ron BoussoEditing by Alexander Smith)