By Stephanie Kelly and Shadia Nasralla
LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) – BP’s new CEO Meg O’Neill began her stint on Wednesday by offering consistency while accelerating the group’s performance, a year after the company pivoted its strategy firmly back to oil and gas, according to a staff note seen by Reuters.
O’Neill is BP’s fourth CEO since 2020 and its first external hire for the role in more than a century. She is the first woman to lead a top-five oil major.
Formerly of Australia’s Woodside Energy and Exxon Mobil, O’Neill arrives as BP seeks to move away from an ill-fated foray into renewables.
‘CLEAR DIRECTION AND CONSISTENCY’
“I believe we can safely accelerate performance and drive innovation, sustainability and growth,” she said in the note to employees. “I’m committed to providing clear direction and consistency so we can move forward together with confidence.”
She joins new chairman Albert Manifold, who took up the role in October and has underscored the need to further reshape BP’s portfolio to boost profitability.
Activist investor Elliott Investment Management, one of BP’s largest shareholders, has called on Manifold to address what it has called the company’s shortcomings.
Manifold recently announced a leaner board, with former Shell finance chief Simon Henry among those departing, saying fewer directors would allow for faster decision-making and sharper oversight as part of BP’s reset.
BP has cut billions of dollars from planned renewable energy projects, pledged to divest $20 billion of assets by 2027, and to reduce debt and costs.
Net debt fell to $22 billion from $26 billion in the fourth quarter last year, and BP reiterated its target range of $14 billion-$18 billion by end-2027.
The company suspended share buybacks in February to focus on cutting debt and refocusing investment on oil and gas projects.
‘BOLD MOVES’
O’Neill, a 55-year-old American from Boulder, Colorado and the first openly gay woman to helm a FTSE 100 company, had led Woodside since 2021 after spending 23 years at Exxon.
When she joined, there was investor concern about the company’s recent performance, share price and culture, said Saul Kavonic, head of energy research at MST Marquee and who has previously worked at Woodside.
“She made some really bold moves and fundamentally pivoted Woodside’s future. She moved Woodside’s future away from Australia toward North America,” Kavonic said.
Under O’Neill’s leadership, Woodside merged with BHP Group’s petroleum arm to create a top 10 global independent oil and gas producer valued at $40 billion and doubled Woodside’s oil and gas production.
The acquisition took the company to the U.S., where it embarked on a major Louisiana liquefied natural gas project.
BP spent more than 40% of its $16.2 billion investment budget in the U.S. in 2024 and plans to boost its output there to around 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of the decade, while keeping overall production steady at around 2.4 million boed.
O’Neill succeeds Murray Auchincloss, who abruptly departed the role in December but will serve in an advisory position until December 2026. BP’s Carol Howle served as interim CEO.
O’Neill will receive a base salary of 1.6 million pounds ($2.1 million), according to the company’s annual report in March.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Shadia Nasralla. Editing by Mark Potter and Arun Koyyur)
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