Compensation of Arco Chief Fell 24% in ’98

Atlantic Richfield Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Bowlin was paid $1.72 million in salary and bonus last year--24% less than in 1997--as low oil prices ravaged profit at the oil company.

Bowlin received a base salary of $980,000 last year, about 4% less than the $1.02 million he was paid in 1997, Arco said in a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Arco slashed Bowlin’s cash bonus 41%, to $740,000 from $1.25 million.

Bowlin was awarded 131,986 stock options with an exercise price of $56.81 and an expiration date of Feb. 22, 2009.

Bowlin’s options represent 9.5% of all options granted to Arco employees in 1998. In 1997, he was awarded 122,098 options with an exercise price of $74 and an expiration date of Feb. 23, 2008, representing 6.6% of the options Arco granted that year.

Bowlin received $284,853 in other compensation, including reimbursements for “financial counseling” and contributions into a savings plan and life insurance policy, an increase over 1997’s $250,372.

Los Angeles-based Arco’s profit from continuing operations fell 70% last year to $400 million as oil prices sank to inflation-adjusted historic lows. Arco stock fell 18.4% in 1998, compared with advances of 10% for the Standard & Poor’s index of international oil companies and 16% for the Dow Jones industrial average.

On Wednesday, Arco shares rose 63 cents to close at $63.63 on the New York Stock Exchange.