Exxon Suspends Employee Bonuses After Oil-Market Collapse

(Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. is suspending employee bonuses for this year after the crude-market collapse spurred a record run of quarterly losses for the oil titan. Top executives, however, will still receive stock awards.

The Exxon board’s compensation committee “exercised discretion in light of challenging industry conditions and resulting company earnings,” the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday. Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods and his four top lieutenants will receive restricted stock units, according to a separate filing on Tuesday.

The oil supermajor has endured a torrid year in which crude demand and prices crashed, forcing the company to slash spending forecasts and target 14,000 jobs for elimination. Exxon also disclosed it expects to write down as much as $20 billion in assets during the current quarter.

Exxon’s top executives -- Woods, Senior Vice Presidents Andrew Swiger, Neil Chapman and Jack Williams, as well as global projects head Neil Duffin -- will share 554,400 in restricted stock awards, about the same as a year earlier. The awards were valued at about $37.5 million in total last year, but Exxon shares have tumbled about 40% since then.

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