By Patrick Thomas 

Recently retired John Watson of the oil giant Chevron Corp. topped the list of highest-paid energy bosses in the S&P 500, taking home more in 2017 than his counterpart at Exxon Mobil Corp.

Mr. Watson, 61, received $24.8 million in 2017, compared with the $17.5 million that first-year Exxon chief Darren Woods was paid last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of pay data from MyLogIQ LLC. Mr. Woods took over on Jan. 1 after Rex Tillerson left Exxon to join the Trump administration.

It was the first time since Mr. Watson took over as CEO in 2010 that he outearned Exxon's leader. Before Mr. Watson's tenure, Chevron's CEO sometimes out-earned Exxon's, even though Exxon is larger in terms of revenue and market capitalization.

After 37 years at Chevron, Mr. Watson retired and was replaced as CEO in February by Michael Wirth, who oversaw the company's network of refining and pipeline assets.

The majority of Mr. Watson's pay was linked to performance, a Chevron spokesman said. "Moreover, during John's tenure, Chevron's stock outperformed its peer companies by a wide margin." In 2016, only 54 percent of stockholders supported Mr. Watson's pay, but 93 percent of stockholders supported it in 2017 after his compensation was changed to be more tied to stock awards and to rely less on option awards, according to regulatory filings. His total compensation in 2017 was about the same as it was in 2016.

Chevron posted a shareholder return of 10.6% for 2017, compared with the median -3.3% for the S&P 500 energy sector. Exxon's shareholder return was -3.8% last year. Total return reflects share price appreciation and dividends.

The median pay for an energy sector CEO in the S&P 500 was $12.7 million last year, according to the Journal analysis.

Four of the eight highest-paid CEOs of the 28 companies in the S&P 500 energy sector ran refining and marketing companies. Topping that group was Greg Garland, CEO of Phillips 66, who received $23.7 million last year. Phillips 66 posted a 20.9% shareholder return in 2017.

Despite surging crude oil prices, nine of the 13 exploration and production companies in the group had negative shareholder returns. Those 13 companies had a median CEO compensation of $12.2 million.

The Journal analysis encompassed S&P 500 energy companies and excluded CEOs who changed jobs during the year or served less than a full year. See the full list here:

--Theo Francis contributed to this article.

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 09, 2018 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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