 Image copyright PA Image caption Bob Dudley took over as BP chief executive in the aftermath of the fatal Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion 
 
 BP shareholders have rejected a pay package of almost £14m for chief executive Bob Dudley at the oil company's annual general meeting. Investors voted against the company’s pay decisions for the first time in living memory, with 59 per cent of proxy votes cast going against BP’s decision to pay Mr Dudley nearly $20m for 2015, a year in which the company ran up a $5.2bn loss. It was the first time that a top British company was defeated over executive pay since shareholders at advertising group WPP and Xstrata, the mining company, rebelled four years ago during what was dubbed the “shareholder spring”. The BP vote results — which were non-binding — were announced at an occasionally mutinous annual general meeting in London, where several shareholders publicly criticised the Mr Dudley’s pay increase. Royal London Asset Management said after the vote: “The vote against the executive directors’ remuneration is extraordinary and shows a lack of discretion by BP’s board.” 
 
 Some investors said Dame Ann Dowling, the head of the company’s remuneration committee, would have to consider her position. Lex Oil prices: owe you one Only higher prices will reduce crude producers’ high leverage 
 
 But Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman, promised to review the terms on which pay is awarded in consultation with shareholders before next year.
– Oil giant BP lost $5.2 billion last year, but the company somehow saw fit to propose maximum bonuses for 2015 for its top executives, including a 20% pay increase for CEO Bob Dudley—a proposal that 59% of shareholders roundly rejected by proxy vote at Thursday's annual meeting, MarketWatch reports. The company had indicated earlier in the day that it may also have to reduce its dividend, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dudley is set to receive the full bonus he was eligible for, which comes to $4.2 million (including $1.4 million in cash and a portion in deferred BP shares), per an earlier MarketWatch report. This amount was bumped up from the $3 million ($1 million in cash) he received in 2014. BP's CFO was also on the list to rake in his full bonus. "We think it sends the wrong message," a rep for shareholder Royal London Asset Management tells the BBC. "It shows that the board is out of touch." Not only did BP suffer straight-up monetary losses as the price of oil fell, it also announced it will be getting rid of about 7,000 jobs and taking other belt-tightening measures. And the Financial Times notes that other energy company execs saw their pay slashed in 2015. But a BP spokesman says "executives performed strongly in a difficult environment in 2015, managing the things they could control and for which they were accountable." Andy Critchlow, writing for the Reuters Breakingviews blog, agrees. "Dudley has to work harder than his predecessors," he writes, noting the CEO has helped the company recover from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and improved safety protocol. "The mild-mannered American has had possibly the toughest job in the oil industry. His rewards look in line with that task." Carl-Henric Svanberg, chairman of BP's board, says the nonbinding shareholder vote won't alter the payouts they've already decided on, but that the board will take investors' concerns into account when coming up with next year's compensation packages.