Generous rewards on offer for oil traders at BP

Commodities traders at BP can expect above average incentives to rival those of their compatriots at Shell and Exxon, and are closing the gap with the top investment banks, recruiters say.

A recruiter working in the area says: "Trading managers at oil companies are free to write out bonuses of $750,000 for their traders without seeking further authorisation. Anything above will need to be authorised from someone at a higher level. But the point is that anything up to $750,000 is very achievable."

The Financial Times reports that BP pays its traders bigger bonuses than other oil companies and allows them to take far larger trading positions than their rivals. While a trader at Royal Dutch Shell had a position limit of $200,000, the paper says his counterpart at BP was set a limit of between $1.5m and $2m.

However, Jakob Bloch, managing director of recruitment firm Commodity Appointments tells eFinancialCareers banks still have the edge over oil companies when it comes to pay: "Do they pay more than banks? I don't think so. I think investment banks involved in oil, particularly the Wall Street refiners, will continue to set the pace on the salary front and on the bonus front."

"Quite a few people go into the oil trading environment and then switch to the banks," says another recruiter. "But you don't see a huge amount of oil traders from the banks doing the reverse."