The boss of a North Sea oil services giant has seen his bonus cut by a quarter of a million pounds following the deaths of three workers.
Petrofac revealed yesterday that it has cut payouts to executive directors following “missed expectations” over health and safety and some financial targets.
Chief executive Ayman Asfari – who has transformed the business since joining in 1991 – had his total pay reduced from £3million in 2012 to £1.7million last year.
His bonus was cut by £254,000 to £750,000.
Finance chief Tim Weller also saw his bonus drop by £102,000 – from £659,165 in 2012 to £499,936.
However, his total pay for 2013 still topped £1million.
Petrofac, which employs 5,000 people in Aberdeen, said North Sea contracts made up about a quarter of its total revenue, which hit £3.8billion in 2013.
Despite the strong performance, the company said health and safety remained its top priority.
“Safety is paramount at Petrofac and as such it is one of the key metrics against which bonus-related performance is measured,” a spokeswoman said.
Two Petrofac workers died in Turkmenistan in 2013. The company also suffered another fatality in Algeria.
The company’s annual report, published yesterday, said the remuneration committee had to take the incidents into account.
“The bonuses awarded to executive directors in respect of 2013 recognise that, on the whole, our performance against our strategic and growth targets was good, with achievement of a number of key strategic and operational milestones,” it said.
“Our programme to drive capability within the group was also delivered well, placing us on a firm footing for future growth.
“In terms of financial results, we achieved modest growth in net profit in 2013 and there was also continued growth in our backlog, which ended the year at a record high of $15billion (£9billion).
“Set against this, however, the committee recognises that there were three fatalities during 2013. In addition, performance against some financial metrics, whilst still good, did not fully meet our stretching expectations and some of our operational targets were not met in all respects.”
Despite the reduced bonus pool, the firm continues to pay more than £1million a year to lease a private jet to fly the directors around.
The use was criticised by Pirc, a voting adviser for some of Britain’s biggest pension funds.
The Petrofac spokeswoman added: “The company has for many years used a corporate aeroplane to enable management to undertake travel commitments that cannot often be fulfilled by commercial flight schedules.
“Whilst in 2013 there were some operational changes to our aeroplane charter arrangements, the level of travel was consistent with previous years.”
The jet the firm leases is owned by an offshore trust of which Mr Asfair is a beneficiary.