BBC NEWS
Former Shell boss Ben van Beurden’s pay package jumps to £9.7m
9 March 2023
Former Shell boss Ben van Beurden received a pay package of £9.7m last year, up more than 50% from 2021.
His pay was revealed in the oil and gas giant’s annual report and accounts.
Shell reported the highest annual profits in its 115-year history last year after a surge in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Massive profits made by energy firms have added to pressure to tax them more as households struggle with rising energy bills.
Shell made a record $39.9bn (£32.2bn) profit in 2022, double the previous year’s total.
When its results came out in February, opposition parties said the company’s profits were “outrageous” and that the government was letting energy firms “off the hook” on taxation.
In 2021, Mr van Beurden was paid the equivalent of £6.3m – he was paid in euros because Shell had yet to move its headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain.
He was replaced on 1 January this year by Wael Sawan, the former head of Shell’s gas and renewables business.
The annual report said Mr Sawan was appointed on a salary of £1.4m, although performance-related payments can often add to the overall pay package considerably. Mr van Beurden’s salary was £1.4m in 2022.
Cost of living pressures
Inflation in the UK has been soaring, with huge increases in the cost of energy a key factor.
As prices rise across the board, putting pressure on struggling households, so oil and gas firms have been coming under political pressure.
When he was chancellor, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak brought in a 25% energy profits levy.
This was increased to 35% from January 2023 by current chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and will run until 2028.
The levy applies to profits made from extracting UK oil and gas, but not on refining, or selling petrol and diesel.
Less than 5% of Shell’s profits come from UK production.
The scheme was criticised because it allowed oil firms to claim back 91p in every pound invested, including in oil and gas. This investment allowance will be reduced from 80% to 29% from 1 January.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
