Shareholders in BP have today a pay deal worth €17.3m for chief executive Bob Dudley amid heavy losses and job cuts at the oil giant.
Only 40.89% voted in favour of the deal in a non-binding vote which highlighted shareholder discontent at BP's annual general meeting in London.
The deal would see Mr Dudley's pay package increase by 20% compared to the previous year.
The London-listed energy group clocked up a loss of €5.7 billion last year - the biggest for at least 20 years - following a global collapse in oil prices and costs relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.
It also announced it would axe another 3,000 jobs, taking its total cull to 11,000 positions since the start of 2015.
Ahead of the vote, one institutional investor, Aberdeen Asset Management, said Mr Dudley's pay structure was "overly complex".
Aberdeen also voiced confidence that "the company will take note of shareholders' feedback".
Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told the company's annual general meeting in London that Mr Dudley and his team had put in a "seriously impressive performance", particularly against a backdrop of falling oil prices in a volatile and fragile market.
But he faced difficult questions from shareholders, including one from a representative of the Church of England about the morality of rising pay, and from others about whether they were suitable in times of austerity.
BP has promised to review its remuneration policy ahead of next year's meeting, with new proposals due to be put forward for shareholder approval in 2017.
Professor Dame Ann Dowling, a non-executive director of BP, said she would personally engage with some of the major shareholders when carrying out the review.
She said: "We are going to review the remuneration policy to see how we can simplify it while retaining a strong link to long-term performance.
"We will certainly review the measures and criteria that we use to judge performance, including how in the future we deal with changes in oil price and also the link to shareholder value."
