BP boss Bob Dudley faces shareholders amid anger over £13.8m pay package

Aberdeen Asset Management is expected to be among a pack of major investors voting against Mr Dudley's pay after it stated that BP's remuneration awards were "overly complex".

But it said it was "supportive of management's strategy" and was "sure the company will take note of shareholders feedback".

Its comments come amid a chorus of criticism over Mr Dudley's pay hike in a year when BP slumped into the red by 5.2 billion US dollars (£3.6 billion) following a collapse in oil prices.

Shareholder group Sharesoc has branded the pay deal "simply too high", while Royal London Asset Management, Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have also expressed their opposition.

But any vote against his pay deal is only advisory and will not lead to the package being blocked.

The pay deal will see Mr Dudley's salary rise from 1.82 million US dollars (£1.27 million) in 2014 to 1.85 million US dollars (£1.3 million) for 2015, while his annual cash bonus will also rise from 1 million US dollars (£702,733) in 2014 to 1.39 million US dollars (£976,799) for last year.

Pressure to reject the pay deal comes after some shareholders also expressed their anger over his pay ahead of BP's AGM in 2015, when his remuneration received a 5% hike.

BP said in January that it would have to axe another 3,000 jobs worldwide in its downstream business - including refining, marketing and distribution - by the end of 2017, on top of the 4,000 cuts announced last year under a swingeing overhaul to slash costs.

A spokesman for BP said: "Despite the very challenging environment, BP's safety and operating performance was excellent throughout 2015 and management also responded early and decisively to the steep fall in the oil price.

"BP's performance surpassed the board's expectations on almost all of the measures that determine remuneration - and the outcome therefore reflects this. And these clear measures derive directly from BP's remuneration policy which was approved by shareholders at the 2014 AGM with over 96% of the vote."

The group's remuneration policy is voted on every three years, with the next vote taking place at the AGM in 2017.

Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said the company's remuneration committee should exercise "restraint".

"There is no need for these numbers to be this high. He's going to do a good job whatever that number is," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Ashley Hamilton Claxton, corporate governance manager at Royal London and a BP shareholder, said the board was "out of touch".

She told Today: "We think it sends the wrong message in terms of paying him the maximum bonus when he has made a significant loss."

John Purcell, managing director of City headhunters Purcell & Co, insisted Mr Dudley had "performed exceptionally well" against the targets he had been set and said it was "easy to pick on a pantomime villain".

"If you are going into a job where you are likely to be publicly vilified, that will come with a significant premium," he told the programme.

Outside London's ExCeL centre, where the AGM was taking place, environmental protesters, complete with a full-size inflatable sperm whale, gathered to show their objections to BP's proposals to drill in the waters off Australia's south coast.

They are concerned that oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight could lead to environmental disaster.

Wilderness Society national director Lyndon Schneiders said: "We are here to tell BP it has no right to risk the pristine waters of the Great Australian Bight, and that the opposition to its plans is growing in Australia and around the world.

"This fight is the southern hemisphere's equivalent of stopping Shell drilling in the Arctic."

Police officers were posted outside the entrance to the ExCeL.