Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden’s total compensation for 2014 will be €24.2 million, including €5.6 million in salary, bonus and shares plus pension and other items, the company said yesterday.

Shell spokeswoman Sally Donaldson said the total figure, published in the company’s annual report, was “unusually high” because it included a variety of extra payments related to Van Beurden’s long service with Shell and tax payments.

“This is not the same as this year’s ‘take home pay’,” Donaldson told Reuters in a statement.

“His promotion to CEO, combined with his prior expatriation from the Netherlands to the UK, have resulted in the ‘single figure’ which we have published today, but it’s important to put this figure in appropriate context.”