The new BP CEO has a long-lasting legacy at Australia's Woodside
Energy industry veteran Meg O'Neill was tapped by BP as the leader of a shake-up within the London-based oil giant. She made an immediate impression when she took over at Australia's 'Woodside Energy', securing a deal which doubled the production portfolio.
Woodside's acquisition of BHP’s petroleum assets by 2021 in a merger of then-$28 billion?bulked-up the Perth-based firm with an international presence during a time of industry consolidation. It made it a top-10 global energy independent company and a powerhouse of gas.
Woodside shares have, however, underperformed their larger rivals over the past five years.
O'Neill, 55, an American of Boulder, Colorado, quits Woodside in 2021 after three years as Chief Operating Officer and a long career with U.S. giant Exxon.
BP announced Wednesday that O'Neill would become CEO in April. She will be the first CEO to be appointed outside of the company, and the first female CEO among the top five oil companies around the world.
Come and see us!
She was first promoted to acting?CEO status in April 2021, before she was named permanently to the position that August. She brought a more open management style to Woodside by making the executive floors of its Mia?Yellagonga HQ building accessible to everyone.
Australian media reported at the time on an internal note that stated "come and see us".
Former Woodside colleagues said: "She was very accessible to the staff and had a low?ego."
Another person described a graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as "an engineer's engineer."
O'Neill, a regular speaker at international energy events, built an increasing industry profile with Woodside's growing ambitions. This?saw the company invest in the $7.2 Billion Trion oil project offshore Mexico and took a greater share of the North West Shelf Gas Project, Australia's once largest?
O'Neill placed a large bet last year on the boom in U.S. gas exports by acquiring a firm that is now developing the $17.5 billion Louisiana project. This was part of a portfolio growth heavily geared towards gas.
Saul Kavonic, analyst at MST Marquee, said that it was only a question of time before Meg was poached. Majors can afford to pay much more.
O'Neill announced in November that Woodside would increase its sales by 50 percent by 2032, to 300 million equivalent barrels of oil. Woodside is also expanding its global trading team and attracting talent in Singapore.
O'Neill is more interested in buying barrels than exploring for them. He told multiple audiences at investor days that Woodside will focus on brownfield drilling to connect to existing infrastructure rather than launching new projects.
FRUSTRATION AND RED TAPE
O'Neill, a straight shooter, has expressed his frustration at the red tape in Australia and with environmental laws, as many projects require approval from both the state and federal governments.
She said that the only thing stopping the development of the large Browse gasfields as backfills for the aging North West Shelf LNG facilities was the regulation. She noted that it took seven year for final approvals for the project to be extended by 40 years.
O'Neill has pulled back on clean energy investments. Woodside's one major project that is still in place is a Beaumont, Texas clean ammonia facility. This approach, which?has been criticized by climate activists, was a reversal of O'Neill's previous policy.
Woodside's annual May meeting was dominated by promotional videos for its projects, including the Fremantle Dockers Australian Rules Football Club.
O'Neill stated, "We have plenty of videos that we can show."
Investors have criticized Woodside's plans for reducing emissions as insufficient. The Climate Transition Action Plan O'Neill created in 2024, which was developed by O'Neill and voted on by 58% shareholders, has been rejected.
She said that sentiments were changing last month.
I think that there is a greater awareness that, as the world invests, even in the developed world, in data centres and AI, that this needs to be powered.
(source: Reuters)
