BP CEO Murray Auchincloss earned 143 times more than the average British worker last year, according to Global Witness analysis, laying bare the financial inequality at the heart of the energy crisis
With the UK’s energy crisis now in its fourth year, the number of households living in fuel poverty has hit 6.1 million (as of January 2025).
Many more could struggle to heat their homes after the new energy price cap hike comes into force on 1 April. Gas and electricity bills are predicted to be £750 more expensive on average than they were pre-energy crisis.
In stark contrast, Auchincloss’ pay hit an obscene £5.4 million in 2024 – our analysis shows that this could pay for the energy bills of over 3,000 UK households.
It would take the average British worker 143 years to earn the same paycheck as BP’s CEO.
Our analysis comes two weeks after BP’s news that it plans to abandon its pivot to renewables – a move that will leave consumers locked into climate-wrecking fossil fuels and vulnerable to price hikes in a volatile market.
In 2023, for example, millions struggled to afford their gas bills after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shock into the energy market – yet our calculations showed that Auchincloss took home 300 times the average UK worker’s pay that year.
Big Oil has profited immensely from the Russian invasion. New Global Witness analysis recently revealed that the world’s five largest listed oil companies – BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies – have raked in over $380 billion dollars since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Their profits shot up by 125% in the invasion’s first year – a boon for their shareholders, but a slap in the face for those still paying off unmanageable energy debts.
“While households worry about their energy bills amidst a soaring cost-of-living crisis, BP’s boss is lining his pockets with a fat-cat paycheck. People have every right to be furious,” says Alice Harrison, Fossil Fuels Campaign Leader at Global Witness.
“It's obscene that climate-wrecking oil firms continue to gouge the market for billions in profit and then hand millions to their executives off the back of our misery.
“Households shouldn’t be made to bear the cost of never-ending bill increases. Governments should instead make some of the wealthiest and most destructive corporations on the planet – big oil firms like BP – pay their fair share in tax.”
