Not so long ago, BP went around marketing itself as “beyond petroleum”. Now, it’s got a new motto: beyond parody.
How else to explain the directors’ performance at yesterday’s AGM? The oil group has just turned in a year starring record $5.2 billion losses, 7,000 job cuts and a 14 per cent dive in the share price. To celebrate, it’s handed chief executive Bob Dudley a 20 per cent pay rise, taking his package up to almost £14 million. The whole thing is already surreal. So you hardly needed Dame Ann Dowling, head of BP’s pay committee, to say: “All are agreed that this has been a very good year for Bob and the team”.
What is she, some sort of comedy turn? True, in