BP’s new chief executive officer Meg O’Neill has pledged consistency and clear direction in her first message to staff as she takes over the top job at the UK-based supermajor effective April 1, amid very turbulent times for both the company and the energy industry.
“I’m committed to providing clear direction and consistency so we can move forward together with confidence,” O’Neill told staff in her first message as CEO, the Financial Times reports.
O’Neill, former CEO of Australia’s Woodside Energy, was picked in December 2025 to succeed Murray Auchincloss, who left with immediate effect at the end of last year.
O’Neill, who now becomes the first woman to lead BP and a Big Oil company, arrives at the supermajor after a few tumultuous years in the first half of this decade.
Under Bernard Looney, BP pledged in early 2020 to boost renewables and reduce oil and gas production. Looney’s abrupt exit and his replacement with Auchincloss made investors anxious about the direction of the company, especially after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed highlighted the continued need for oil and gas.
BP, more than other supermajors, suffered from the green strategy, with shareholders unhappy and demanding changes, and a share price severely underperforming those of its peers and the surge in oil prices in 2022-2023.
Revolt among shareholders has been brewing for years over rising debt and an underperforming share price, with activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management especially vocal in its demand for a turnaround at the supermajor.
So last year, under intense shareholder pressure, BP under Auchincloss yielded to investor pressure and announced a major strategy reset to slash investments in renewables and focus on its core business of producing oil and gas.
Analysts believe that O’Neill will now continue the course of boosting oil and gas production while looking to create more value for shareholders.
BP is currently operating in an environment of “significant complexity”, due to “geopolitical tension, conflict, rapid technological change and shifting global energy demand,” O’Neill said in her message to staff carried by FT.
“We play a vital role in supplying customers across the world with the energy they need to help them thrive,” the executive noted.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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