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BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss is being replaced after less than two years, the oil and gas major has appointed Woodside Energy boss Meg O’Neill as his successor.
Auchincloss will leave the top manager role immediately but will remain at BP in an advisory capacity until the end of 2026, the UK company said on Wednesday. O’Neill, a former ExxonMobil executive, will start the job April 1. BP’s trading chief Carol Hawley will run the company in the interim.
Auchincloss’s departure follows the appointment of Albert Manifold as BP chairman in July. He said, “When Albert became chairman, I expressed my openness to stepping down and a suitable leader could be identified who could accelerate the implementation of BP’s strategy.”
O’Neill will become BP’s third new chief executive in five years, during which the company launched an unsuccessful and value-destroying effort to transform itself into a green energy giant.
Following pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, Auchincloss reversed the strategy adopted by his predecessor Bernard Looney and refocused on BP’s core oil and gas operations.
His departure came after BP’s share price rose 5.6 percent this year despite a 20 percent drop in oil prices, making it the second-best performing oil company behind ExxonMobil.
A major BP shareholder said Auchincloss, a Canadian citizen, had “stopped the bleeding” in recent months.
O’Neill, a former ExxonMobil executive, has been chief executive of Woodside Energy, Australia’s largest oil and gas company, since 2021.
Manifold described her as having a “relentless focus on business improvement and financial discipline.”
He also said that his appointment would allow BP to become a “simpler, leaner, more profitable company”, suggesting that its shape could change significantly in the coming years.
Since joining BP, Manifold has met with top investors, conducted a strategic review of the company and is expected to deliver his initial findings in February.
The BP shareholder said Manifold has a very different approach to the oil major than his predecessors.
“He is going through all the business areas one by one and figuring out how he feels about investing. He is not tied to the integrated model,” he said. He explained how BP operates from exploration and production of oil and gas to refining, trading and petrol station sales.
O’Neill plans Woodside’s expansion in the US, acquiring struggling liquefied natural gas developer Tellurian last year for $1.2 billion and declaring ambitions to make the company a “global LNG powerhouse”.
In April he approved a $17.5 billion investment in an LNG terminal called Louisiana LNG and months later struck a deal with private equity firm Stonepeak to help fund development on the Gulf Coast.
However, during O’Neill’s tenure, Woodside’s share price has remained stable, compared with a 47 percent increase for BP during the same period.
The American oil executive who grew up in Boulder, Colorado, started her career at ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas.
He later worked for the company in Norway, Indonesia and Australia and spent time as an advisor to then-Exxon Chief Executive Rex Tillerson.
O’Neill left Exxon in 2018 to join Woodside as chief operating officer, overseeing the company’s production assets.
Woodside said it had appointed Liz Westcott as acting chief executive from December 18.
Westcott has led Woodside’s Australian operations since joining Energy Australia in 2023.
