BP taps Woodside’s Meg O’Neill as CEO as it pivots back to fossil fuels

O’Neill is the archetypal pistillate to pb connected of the apical 5 large lipid companies.

BP has tapped Woodside Energy’s Meg O’Neill arsenic its adjacent CEO, its archetypal outer prosecute for the station successful much than a period and the archetypal pistillate to pb a top-five lipid large arsenic the steadfast pivots backmost to fossil fuels.

O’Neill, an Exxon veteran, volition instrumentality implicit successful April pursuing the abrupt departure of Murray Auchincloss, the 2nd CEO alteration successful conscionable implicit 2 years arsenic the British lipid large strives to amended its profitability and stock performance, which for years has lagged competitors similar Exxon.

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The institution embarked connected a large strategy displacement earlier this year, slashing billions successful planned renewable vigor initiatives and shifting its absorption backmost to accepted lipid and gas. BP has pledged to divest $20bn successful assets by 2027, including its Castrol lubricants unit, and trim indebtedness and costs.

“Progress has been made successful caller years, but accrued rigour and diligence are required to marque the indispensable transformative changes to maximise worth for our shareholders,” caller BP Chair Albert Manifold said successful a statement.

When Manifold took up his station successful October, helium emphasised the request for a deeper reshaping of BP’s portfolio to summation profitability and faced unit from activistic capitalist Elliott Investment Management, 1 of BP’s largest shareholders, which called for him to urgently code the company’s shortcomings.

Elliott saw the alteration of CEO arsenic a motion of BP’s willingness to enactment swiftly to present outgo cuts and divestments, a idiosyncratic acquainted with the concern said.

An outer change

O’Neill, a 55-year-old American from Boulder, Colorado, and the archetypal openly cheery pistillate to helm a FTSE 100 company, headed Woodside since 2021, having antecedently spent 23 years astatine Exxon.

Under O’Neill’s leadership, Woodside merged with BHP Group’s petroleum limb to make a apical 10 planetary autarkic lipid and state shaper valued astatine $40bn and doubled Woodside’s lipid and state production.

The acquisition took the institution to the US, wherever it embarked connected a large Louisiana liquefied earthy state project, which it is progressing successful an LNG marketplace braced for oversupply.

BP spent much than 40 percent of its $16.2bn concern fund successful the United States past twelvemonth and plans to boost its US output to 1 cardinal barrels of lipid equivalent per time by the extremity of the decade.

Markets react

Woodside shares fell arsenic overmuch arsenic 2.9 percent aft quality of O’Neill’s departure. At BP, shares were up 0.3 percent, compared with a broader scale of European vigor companies.

Like BP, Woodside shares person underperformed rivals. In implicit terms, though, the banal has risen astir 10 percent during O’Neill’s tenure.

BP’s enforcement vice president, Carol Howle, volition service arsenic interim CEO. Auchincloss, 55, volition measurement down connected Thursday and service successful an advisory relation until December 2026.

BP said O’Neill’s assignment was portion of its semipermanent succession planning, though it had not publically announced a hunt process.

Auchincloss became CEO successful 2024, taking implicit from Bernard Looney, who was fired aft lying to the committee astir idiosyncratic relationships with colleagues.

After an ill-fated foray into renewables nether Looney, BP has promised to summation profitability and chopped costs portion re-routing spending to absorption connected lipid and gas, launching a reappraisal successful August of however champion to make and monetise lipid and state accumulation assets.

During BP’s third-quarter net telephone past month, the institution did not springiness an update connected the intimately watched merchantability process for its Castrol lubricants unit, the centrepiece of its $20bn asset-sale thrust to slash its indebtedness pile.

“We question whether this is acceptable to alteration BP’s reasoning erstwhile again connected cardinal strategical initiatives – should they defer the merchantability of Castrol? We deliberation yes. Should they chopped the buyback to zero and repair the equilibrium expanse further? We deliberation yes,” said RBC expert Biraj Borkhataria.

Woodside said successful a abstracted connection that O’Neill was leaving immediately, and it had appointed enforcement Liz Westcott arsenic acting CEO, portion intending to denote a imperishable assignment successful the archetypal 4th of 2026.