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BP’s new boss has promised “clear direction and consistency” after a year in which the UK oil major reversed strategy under pressure from an activist investor and lost both its chair and chief executive.
Meg O’Neill, the 55-year-old US oil executive charged with reviving BP, said in her first message to staff that she understood the company had been through “significant change and that can be tough”.
Her arrival follows a period of upheaval in which BP scaled back its energy transition ambitions under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, and parted ways with its chair Helge Lund and former chief executive Murray Auchincloss.
O’Neill signalled continuity on recent efforts to improve performance but said she wanted to move faster, adding that while progress had been made on hitting short-term targets to 2027, “there’s always more to do”.
“I’m committed to providing clear direction and consistency so we can move forward together with confidence,” she told staff.
O’Neill joins as BP’s first female chief executive and the first outsider to be appointed directly into the role, in a break from the company’s tradition of internal succession. Ahead of her arrival, BP became the first oil major to suspend its share buyback programme in February as it grapples with cutting its roughly $22bn debt pile.
Albert Manifold, who took over as BP chair last year and has encouraged the company to go further and faster in pursuing shareholder value, described O’Neill in BP’s annual report in March as “the right leader” to pursue “significant strategic and financial opportunities”.
Under pressure from Elliott, which revealed a 5 per cent stake in BP last year, BP has begun divesting assets and this year wrote down the value of its solar, offshore wind and biogas businesses by over $4bn. O’Neill told staff she wants to make the company “simpler, stronger and more valuable”.
The sharp rise in oil prices because of the Iran war has offered some relief. When BP announced her appointment, the oil price was under $60 a barrel. On Tuesday, benchmark Brent crude had nearly doubled to just under $119 amid the US and Israel’s war in Iran. BP’s share price has risen accordingly, up 44 per cent to 605p in the same period.
Analysts at HSBC estimate that about 10 per cent of BP’s oil and liquefied natural gas output has been affected by the conflict but said that higher prices more than offset the disruption. The bank has raised its 2026 earnings per share forecast by 63 per cent and its cash flow per share estimate by 18 per cent.
In her message, O’Neill said BP was navigating an environment of “significant complexity”, citing “geopolitical tension, conflict, rapid technological change and shifting global energy demand”. She added: “We play a vital role in supplying customers across the world with the energy they need to help them thrive.”