Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill resigns to run global oil giant BP

Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill is leaving Australia’s largest oil and gas producer to take up a new job as boss of global energy major BP.

O’Neill has been appointed to succeed Murray Auchincloss on April 1 as the chief executive of London-based BP, one of the world’s biggest energy companies. She will become the first external hire, and the first woman, to hold the role.

“Her proven track record of driving transformation, growth, and disciplined capital allocation makes her the right leader for BP,” said BP chair Albert Manifold in a statement.

Woodside on Thursday said Liz Westcott, who runs the company’s Australian operations, would take over as acting chief executive until a successor was found.

O’Neill, an American, has been the head of the Perth-based oil and gas giant since 2021. Before joining the company in 2018, she worked for ExxonMobil for 23 years. She has steered Woodside through a period of major growth, including placing significant bets on ongoing global appetite for fossil fuels, even as the world tackles climate change.

Under her leadership, Woodside completed its acquisition of mining giant BHP’s global petroleum division, started producing oil at the Sangomar field in Senegal, and made final investment decisions to develop the Scarborough gas project in Western Australia and construct a $27 billion liquefied gas export terminal in the United States.

O’Neill said she was “honoured” to serve as BP’s next chief executive, and was looking “forward to working with the BP leadership team and colleagues worldwide to accelerate performance, advance safety, drive innovation and sustainability and do our part to meet the world’s energy needs”.

Analysts on Thursday said financial markets would view O’Neill’s resignation as a negative for Woodside. Woodside’s shares lost 2.7 per cent following the announcement.

The temporary appointment of Westacott during the board’s search for a permanent chief executive was a recognition of her strong operating focus as chief operating officer of the company’s Australian business, RBC Capital Markets said.

“The Woodside board has highlighted the company has a number of highly qualified internal candidates,” RBC analyst Gordon Ramsay said. “We note seven executive vice presidents report directly to the CEO who have capability to possibly fill Meg’s role.”

Macquarie analyst Mark Wiseman said Woodside planned to announce a permanent chief executive in the first quarter of 2026. There would “undoubtedly” be internal candidates such as chief commercial officer Mark Abbotsford and international chief operating officer Daniel Kalms as well as an external search, he said.

Brynn O’Brien of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, a shareholder activist group, said O’Neill’s exit from Woodside presented an opportunity for the company to rethink its strategy. In a historic uprising last year, 58 per cent of Woodside’s shareholders voted to reject its decarbonisation strategies as inadequate, while many voiced concerns about the potential risks of developing more oil and gas projects.

“Investors will be hoping that O’Neill’s departure is a circuit breaker on Woodside’s habit of pursuing high-capex, marginal fossil fuel projects,” O’Brien said.

Auchincloss, who steps down as head of BP after less than two years in the job, said it was the right time to “hand the reins” to a new leader.

“I expressed my openness to step down were an appropriate leader identified who could accelerate delivery of BP’s strategy,” he said. “I am confident that BP is now well positioned for significant growth, and I look forward to watching the company’s future progress and success under Meg’s leadership.”

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