Shell chief's pay package more than doubles but the dividend stays flat

Peter Voser, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, saw his total pay packet more than double in 2011, a year when shareholders in the oil supermajor had to make do with flat dividend payouts.

The blue-chip's annual report showed Mr Voser's total compensation last year hit €11.6m (£10.1m), boosted by payouts on a host of the company's long-term share plans, in contrast with a far smaller €4.7m in 2010.

The payout comes after a year in which the Anglo-Dutch giant boosted profits 54 per cent to $28.6bn (£18.1bn) as oil prices averaged $111 a barrel. But the company's dividend remained flat at $1.68 over the year. The firm's upstream director, Malcolm Brinded, who steps down next month after a career with Shell spanning nearly 40 years, took home almost as much as Mr Voser last year, landing £9.9m in salary, bonuses and share schemes. The huge payouts are likely to raise eyebrows among investors who delivered a shock blow to the board three years ago by voting down discretionary payouts to bosses despite missing performance targets.

Shell added yesterday that the UK's former US ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald is joining the board in July as a non-executive director, on a likely salary of at least €120,000 a year, working with heavy-hitters including the outgoing Deutsche Bank chief executive, Josef Ackermann.