BP pays E&Y £54m in fees

Big Four accountants Ernst & Young earned £54m from oil company BP in audit and non-audit work, according to the multinational’s annual report.

BP is one of the most lucrative audit jobs, owing to the complexity, size and geographical spread of the business.

According to BP’s report, E&Y earned £13m from its audit of the company, £22m for audit of subsidiaries, £11m for “other services”, £1m for tax and a remaining £1m for different services again.

The full £54m makes it one of the largest combined audit and non-audit fee of any company in the FTSE 100.

The figure was lower than previous years. In 2007, the firm was paid £75m and in 2008 this was reduced to £67m

BP said, in its annual report, this reflected a drive to “raise efficiency in audit processes” as well as a reduction in tax services and services related to corporate finance transactions.

Read the full BP annual report