ExxonMobil handed its chief executive a 52% pay increase to $35.9m (£28.7m) for 2022 after the oil company reported its highest ever profits amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Darren Woods’ salary rose by 10% to $1.9m last year while his bonus and share awards surged by 80% compared with the year before. The company said the bumper payday was “reflective of record company earnings and stock price performance”.
ExxonMobil made $56bn in profits, or $6.3m an hour, last year after the war in Ukraine ignited a surge in global oil and gas prices. The company’s record profit was also the highest reported by any western oil company.
In an official company filing, Exxon’s remuneration committee said that under Wood’s leadership the company had “delivered exceptional business results”. Meanwhile, the company’s share price outpaced its industry rivals last year after climbing by 160%.
Its main US rival, Chevron, had a record $36.5bn profit, while the European oil company Shell announced the biggest profits in its 115-year history, at $39.9bn, and BP reported a $27.7bn profit.
The chief executive of BP, Bernard Looney, outraged critics after taking home about £10m last year, a 120% increase from the £4.5m he received in 2021. It was called a “kick in the teeth” to households struggling with their energy bills by campaigners at Global Witness.
The oil industry’s outsized profits were criticised as “outrageous” by the US president, Joe Biden, during his state of the union address in February. Biden has previously accused Exxon of making “more money than God”.
In the UK oil industry profits stoked public anger, leading to calls for a windfall tax on companies that had profited from the surge in global energy market prices as a result of the war in Ukraine.
In May 2022, the then chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced an “energy profits levy” against oil company profits to help support households struggling with their energy bills.
The current chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, later toughened the windfall tax as part of his autumn statement in November but faced renewed calls to adapt it after the announcement of bumper earnings from BP and Shell earlier this year.
