Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Shell, received a £1m bonus last year despite the Dutch group's 2004 oil reserve replacement debacle, according to the US Securities and exchange commission.

Link: Reserve levels still a concern for Shell

The euro 1.35m bonus was revealed in an official filing with the SEC, which also uncovered that the oil giant put aside $12m (£6.4m) for legal costs to defend sacked board members such as Sir Philip Watts.

The SEC discovered that Van der Veer, who replaced Sir Philip, and whose basic salary is uro 1.28m, also received a deferred bonus in 2004 of euro 267,460 as well as an additional 150,000 stock options.