£20m payday for Exxon chief

THE BOSS of oil giant Exxon Mobil was paid over $38m (£20m) last year - more than £55,000 a day - as the company made the biggest profit in US history. Lee Raymond's salary increased slightly to $3.6m while his bonus rose to $3.9m. But his big windfall came in stock awards worth more than $28m, up from $17.9m a year earlier.

The payment eclipsed that of BP chief Lord Browne, who was rewarded for his company's soaring profits with a £5.65m pay package, equivalent to a relatively modest £15,000 a day - although that rises to £21,000 a day if Browne's share options worth £1.9m are taken into account.

Those packages make Jeroen van der Veer, chief executive of Shell, seem the poor relation. He took home a bonus of nearly £1m last year despite the reserves fiasco that damaged the company's reputation.

Exxon had a particularly good year, riding the wave of rising oil and gas prices to post revenue of more than $298bn and a record net profit of $25.33bn. The company's share price has reflected that, rising 28% over the past year.

Other perks for Raymond included $179,382 for club memberships, financial planning services and tax assistance, as well as personal use of the company aircraft. At the end of 2004, Raymond, 66, held $138.9m in restricted shares. He raised $43.6m from exercising options to buy 1.79m shares during the year.

Exxon's compensation committee defended Raymond's package as appropriate when compared with the pay of chiefs of other American oil companies and major corporations - 'particularly in view of the long-term performance of the company and the substantial experience and expertise that Mr Raymond brings to the job'.

ChevronTexaco chairman and chief executive Dave O'Reilly bagged a $4.5m pay package in 2003. He pocketed a $5m bonus four years ago. John B Hess, head of US independent oil company Amerada Hess, was paid $3.9m last year.

The Exxon committee said it did not use a formula but based Raymond's salary and bonus on leadership and results measured by factors including long- term returns on capital and growth in earnings per share.

His package reflects a trend among US corporations to load up their chiefs' compensation with stock grants tied to continuing service instead of stock options. This trend is also gaining ground in Britain.