BP CEO Says Oil Giant Needs to Make ‘Fewer and Better’ Choices

Meg O’Neill’s decision to simplify the company’s structure is helping BP’s response to the disruption caused by the Iran war

By Mitchell Ferman

BP PLC’s new chief executive acknowledged that the oil giant still has work to do to streamline its decision-making processes and gain investor trust in a post that marked her first 100 days in the job.

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“We need to be deliberate about where we invest and where we don’t,” CEO Meg O’Neill said on LinkedIn on Thursday. “We need to make fewer, better choices and hold ourselves to account. Investors should be able to rely on us in the same way our customers do.”

So far, her decision to simplify the company’s structure is helping BP’s response to the disruption caused by the Iran war, she said. Big Oil’s first female CEO said the trading and shipping arm has worked with the refining team to react constructively to the crisis. That response included delivering millions of litres of diesel from the United States to Australia and producing more jet fuel at a plant in Spain, she said.

“We’ve moved at pace to simplify BP into two businesses, upstream and downstream, with trading connecting both to create value,” O’Neill said in the post on Thursday.

Analysts have already noted how the supply disruption and elevated oil prices caused by the U.S.-Iran conflict — which threatened to reignite on Wednesday with fresh attacks from both sides — are providing O’Neill with a financial tailwind that should help to address BP’s woes.

O’Neill announced the reorganization of BP’s leadership and reporting structures last month, in an overhaul that cemented the company’s focus on oil and gas. She has yet to lay out longer-term targets, and the current strategic plan she inherited mostly runs through 2027, but Thursday’s post identified her general priorities.

The post didn’t mention Ex-Chairman Albert Manifold, who was unexpectedly ousted in May.