Shell boss sees pay jump to £8.6m despite sharp drop in profits

Shell has revealed boss Wael Sawan’s pay package swelled to £8.6m last year despite sharply lower profits as it outlined plans for higher shareholder returns amid cuts to costs and spending.

The group’s annual report, published ahead of the oil giant’s capital market day event for shareholders, showed Mr Sawan’s total pay lifted by 9% from £7.9 million in 2023 as he landed a £2.9m annual bonus and £3.9 million in long-term share awards.

The pay boost came in spite of Shell’s annual results in January revealing a 16% drop in profits for 2024, with earnings coming in at $23.7bn (£18.4bn), down from $28.3bn (£21.9bn) in 2023.

The report also showed Mr Sawan’s annual salary lifted by 3.9% to £1.45m last year and has risen again by 5.5% to £1.54m in 2025.

It said the wider workforce also received a 5.5% pay rise.

Details on executive pay came as the London-listed group set out five-year plans to ramp up cost savings and cut spending as it pledged to “deliver more value with less emissions”.

The oil giant told investors it would now look to strip out a cumulative five billion US dollars to seven billion US dollars (£3.9bn to £5.4bn) a year by the end of 2028.

This is up from the previous aim for two billion dollars to three billion dollars (£1.5bn to £2.3bn) by the end of 2025.

It has already delivered more than three billion dollars (£2.3bn) of cost savings under current plans, with its annual report showing a 7% drop in its workforce to 96,000 at the end of last year, including so-called “portfolio companies” within the group.

The group said it would continue to keep a tight rein on contractor costs, which are already down by 30% since 2023, as well as using artificial intelligence and tech to make savings.

“We will continue to focus on lowering our structural costs, which will be increasingly non-portfolio driven, leveraging cost saving opportunities through AI, technology and in our procurement processes,” Shell said.

It also committed to lowering its spending to 20 billion dollars to 22 billion dollars (£15.5bn to £17bn) a year over the next three years, while boosting investor returns through share buybacks and dividend payouts.

Other targets outlined included aims to grow its top-line production across the group’s upstream and integrated gas business by 1% a year over the next five years.

It added it would seek to grow sales of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 4% to 5% a year through to 2030.

In its plan, the firm said it would spend up to 10% of capital employed on lower carbon businesses by the end of the decade, having last year significantly watered down its climate pledges.

It cautioned over plans to shut some chemicals operations across Europe, saying it wants to “unlock more value from our strong portfolio of chemicals assets by exploring strategic and partnership opportunities in the US and both high-grading and selective closures in Europe”.

Mr Sawan said he wanted the firm to be the “world’s leading integrated gas and LNG business”.

He added: “Today we are raising the bar across our key financial targets, investing where we have competitive strengths and delivering more for our shareholders.”

Last year, Shell controversially dropped a plan to reduce net carbon intensity by 45% by 2035 and instead said it would aim for a 100% reduction by 2050.

It also revealed plans to reduce the “net carbon intensity” of the energy it sells by 15% to 20% by 2030 compared with 2016, having previously targeted a 20% reduction.

Its LNG business has attracted anger from sustainability-conscious investors, with a group led by UK and Australian pension funds recently filing a resolution at its upcoming annual general meeting questioning Shell’s LNG plans and how they line up with its 2050 net zero aims.