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ExxonMobil's CEO received a pay package last year worth nearly four times that of the bosses of rivals BP and Shell, highlighting the wide disparity between European and American wages in the booming oil sector.
Darren Woods received salary, stock options and a bonus of up to $36.9 million in 2023, the largest U.S. oil company said in a securities filing on Thursday. This was $1 million more than the previous year.
His pay compares with the $26.5 million paid to Mike Wirth, head of US rival Chevron, representing a $3 million increase over the previous year.
The pay was much lower for the heads of their transatlantic peers. Shell CEO Wael Sawan received 7.9 million pounds ($9.9 million), while Murray Auchincloss, who took over as head of BP in September, received 8 million pounds ($10 million).
The pay disclosure comes amid growing focus on the so-called transatlantic valuation gap, where US oil and gas groups have much higher market capitalizations, benefiting from deeper pools of capital and a more favorable investment environment for fossil fuels.
Exxon boasts a market value of about $480 billion, compared to $300 billion for Chevron, $230 billion for Shell, and $110 billion for BP.
Former Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden told a Financial Times conference this week that the company – the UK's largest publicly listed group – was “significantly undervalued” in London and could benefit from shifting its listing to the US. United.
The Financial Times revealed last year that Shell had considered exiting Europe and moving its listing to the United States.
Oil and gas companies in the United States and Canada tend to attribute a much larger share of executive pay to incentives than their European counterparts.
“North American companies are more focused on paying at risk,” said Stephen Diott, head of the compensation practice at The Bedford Group, a Calgary-based consulting firm.
“If a CEO has a good year, the impact of incentive payments on total compensation can be very significant. This pay rise will not be anywhere near the high level typically seen for European-based executives.”
The approaching $40 million for Woods falls short of the pay top tech executives received last year, when Microsoft chief Satya Nadella received $48.5 million and Apple chief Tim Cook received $48.5 million. $63.2 million.
Oil companies around the world have reported big profits over the past two years as Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine sent crude oil prices soaring.
Last year was Exxon's second most profitable year ever, with profits reaching $36 billion, trailing only 2022. Woods' base salary was approximately $1.9 million, and the vast majority of his salary was based on variable factors such as bonuses and stock-based awards. .
His total salary was 199 times the average pay of an employee at Exxon and the largest since he took over the oil major in 2017.
