BP has tapped Woodside Energy’s Meg O’Neill as its next CEO. This is the first outside hire for the position in more than a century and the first woman to lead one of the top five oil companies as the company transitions back to fossil fuels.
O’Neill, an Exxon veteran, will take over in April following the sudden departure of Murray Auchincloss. This is the second CEO change in just over two years as the British oil giant seeks to improve its profitability and stock performance, which has lagged rivals such as Exxon for years.
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The company initiated a major strategy shift earlier this year, cutting billions in planned renewable energy initiatives and shifting its focus back to traditional oil and gas. BP has committed to divest $20 billion in assets by 2027, including its Castrol lubricants division, and reduce debt and costs.
“Progress has been made in recent years, but greater rigor and care is needed to make the necessary transformative changes and maximize value for our shareholders,” new BP chairman Albert Manifold said in a statement.
When Manifold took office in October, he stressed the need for a deeper overhaul of BP’s portfolio to boost profitability and faced pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management, one of BP’s largest shareholders, who urged him to urgently address the company’s shortcomings.
Elliott viewed the CEO change as a sign of BP’s willingness to act quickly to cut costs and divest, a person familiar with the situation said.
An external change
O’Neill, a 55-year-old American from Boulder, Colorado and the first openly gay woman to lead a FTSE 100 company, has led Woodside since 2021 after previously spending 23 years at Exxon.
Under O’Neill’s leadership, Woodside merged with BHP Group’s petroleum division to create one of the world’s top ten independent oil and gas producers, valued at $40 billion, and doubled Woodside’s oil and gas production.
The acquisition took the company to the US, where it embarked on a large liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana, advancing it in an LNG market poised for oversupply.
BP spent more than 40 percent of its $16.2 billion capital expenditure budget in the United States last year and plans to increase its U.S. production to 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of the decade.
Markets react
Woodside shares fell as much as 2.9 percent following news of O’Neill’s departure. At BP, shares rose 0.3 percent compared to a broader index of European energy companies.
Like BP, Woodside shares have underperformed their peers. In absolute terms, however, the stock has risen by around 10 percent during O’Neill’s tenure.
Carol Howle, BP’s executive vice president, will serve as interim CEO. Auchincloss, 55, will step down on Thursday and serve in an advisory role until December 2026.
BP said O’Neill’s appointment was part of its long-term succession planning, although the company has not publicly announced a search process.
Auchincloss became CEO in 2024, taking over from Bernard Looney, who was fired after lying to the board about personal relationships with colleagues.
After an ill-fated foray into renewables under Looney, BP has vowed to boost profitability and cut costs while redirecting spending to oil and gas, and in August launched a review of how best to develop and monetize oil and gas production assets.
During BP’s third-quarter earnings conference call last month, the company gave no update on the closely watched sale process of its Castrol lubricants division, the centerpiece of its $20 billion divestment drive to reduce its mountain of debt.
“We wonder if this will once again change BP’s thinking on key strategic initiatives – should they postpone the sale of Castrol? We think so. Should they reduce the buyback to zero and continue to repair the balance sheet? We think so,” said RBC analyst Biraj Borkhataria.
Woodside said in a separate statement that O’Neill would leave the company immediately and appointed executive director Liz Westcott as acting CEO, while aiming to announce a permanent appointment in the first quarter of 2026.
