These are nervous times at the top of North America’s oil companies. Executives are trying to cope with the plunge in oil prices and are slashing costs as they watch earnings and revenue drop. Their own compensation, though, may not yet be on the chopping block. According to compensation consultants and some investors, the mostly generous packages executives were receiving when the oil price was much higher, and the U.S. shale oil boom was roaring away, are in most cases going to survive – at least for awards based on their performance in 2014.