Helge Lund will become the best-paid oil-company boss in Europe when he takes the helm at BG Group Plc, catapulting him past peers at bigger producers including Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Lund, 51, will receive a package including salary, pension and bonuses amounting to as much as 14 million pounds ($22.3 million), the company said in a statement today. That’s more than 10 times what he earned last year as CEO at Norway’s state- controlled Statoil ASA.

On top of that, Lund, who takes up the post at Europe’s sixth-biggest oil company by market value in March, stands to get a special share award valued at 12 million pounds, paid out over five years.

By contrast, BP Plc CEO Bob Dudley got a total package valued at $13.2 million last year, and Peter Voser, the former head of Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, earned $10.8 million.

While his compensation puts Lund at the head of the pack in Europe, he’s still just behind peers in the U.S. Exxon Mobil Corp. boss Rex Tillerson made about $28 million last year, and $40 million in 2012. Chevron Corp. paid CEO John Watson $24 million last year and $32 million the previous year.

Speaking in Oslo, Lund declined to comment on compensation. “I don’t want to comment on salary and terms at all,” he said. “I have never negotiated my salary with Statoil. I’ve taken what I’ve been given.”

BG has been searching for a chief since March when Chris Finlayson quit after little more than a year when production growth missed targets amid arguments with the board over the pace of asset disposals. BG, whose stock has dropped 20% this year, needs a leader to oversee the start of an LNG export project in Australia, the development of offshore fields in Brazil and the possible sale of assets in the U.K.’s North Sea.

“It is hard to imagine a more suitable candidate, and the chairman should be congratulated for landing such a big fish,” Neill Morton at Investec Securities said in a note. “This is no hagiography; BG still faces challenges, but we believe it has a better chance of addressing them with Lund on board.”

Lund, who expanded Statoil in countries from Brazil to Tanzania, has also placed a bet on U.S. shale oil and gas by buying Brigham Exploration Co. for $4.4 billion in 2011.

He received taxable compensation of 13.8 million kroner ($2.1 million) in 2013, including a base pay of 7.6 million kroner, according to Statoil’s annual report.

“Statoil has enjoyed Helge Lund’s leadership capacity at a significantly lower price than what BG’s paying,” chairman Svein Rennemo said. “I’m quite satisfied with that.”

BG’s board has approved a “competitive” remuneration package, it said in the statement. It includes a base salary of 1.5 million pounds plus a 30% cash payment in lieu of pension, a short-term annual cash incentive worth 100% to 200% of the base, a long-term incentive plan with a face value of six times the salary plus a one-time relocation allowance of 480,000 pounds. He’ll also get BG shares worth as much as $3 million to compensate him for unvested payments in Statoil.

Shareholders must vote on the special 12 million-pound share award later this year. Lund isn’t obliged to join BG if the award isn’t approved, the company said.

“BG Group has excellent prospects,” chairman Andrew Gould said in the statement. “We will have strong production growth and cash generation over the coming years from our projects in Brazil and Australia. The company needs a proven leader from the oil and gas industry to deliver the exceptional opportunities available to it.”