When Meg O’Neill takes the helm at BP, she’ll bring more than just her reputation as a formidable operator. She will carry the playbook that made her a standard-bearer for the fossil fuel industry’s fightback against climate activism.
O’Neill’s appointment is the most black and white sign BP is going back to its roots. It’s been reported that O’Neill’s father grew up in a home in Illinois with no electricity.
The BP board has chosen someone who never wavered in her commitment to oil and gas, even as pressure mounted from investors, governments and activists.
Coal mining billionaire Brian Flannery, who made his fortune selling Felix Resources and now holds stakes in the oil and gas sector, says O’Neill’s expertise in traditional energy makes her the perfect fit for BP’s pivot.
“I think that’s her forte. She understands gas and petroleum,” Flannery told The Australian. “Most of the oil companies are realising that that’s where they’re making money.”
His assessment is blunt: companies are abandoning renewable energy experiments for the proven profitability of hydrocarbons.
In February, BP’s now former chief executive Murray Auchincloss pulled the plug on his company’s net zero ambitions, which he described at the time as “misplaced” and going “too far, too fast”.
O’Neill was an outlier during the rush to decarbonise and “would be well sought after”, precisely because she represents conventional energy rather than the transition away from it, says Flannery.
She became CEO of Woodside in 2021, having worked at ExxonMobil before that, after graduating from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
O’Neill transformed Australia’s largest independent oil and gas company into a $50bn behemoth through the merger with BHP Petroleum. More significantly, she reshaped the political landscape around energy policy, relentlessly pushing back against Labor’s meddling, and championing fossil fuel projects while much of the industry hedged its bets.
Her most significant policy victory came in navigating the Scarborough gas project and Pluto Train 2 expansion through a gauntlet of environmental opposition and Indigenous heritage concerns.
O’Neill cultivated direct relationships with federal and state ministers, arguing forcefully that Australia’s economic prosperity depended on maintaining its position as a global LNG powerhouse. The government largely agreed with her, approving projects worth tens of billions even as it retained its own net-zero commitments.
“I would describe her as bold and brave,” says Ten Cap portfolio manager Jun Bei Liu of O’Neill’s determination to push through massive capital expenditure at a time when the world was turning against fossil fuels and embracing ‘peak oil’.
“They’ve got such a strong strategic direction. She convinced everybody by saying it’s necessary, and now that just at the cusp of it, she’s gone.”
Woodside’s share price fell on Thursday after her departure was announced. O’Neill also proved masterful at framing the climate debate on her terms, consistently positioning gas as a “transition fuel” essential for energy security – an argument that gained traction following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Her public interventions in energy policy debates were calculated and effective, making her a regular presence in Canberra and a key industry voice pushing back against accelerated decarbonisation timelines.
This year, at the industry’s annual conference, she expressed “fascination” with young peoples’ zealotry against fossil fuels while “happily plugging in their devices, ordering things from Shein and Temu” in comments that were predictably resonant.
She also knows how to read a room; when O’Neill tossed the coin before the start of the Fremantle Dockers home game this year, there was no fanfare or introduction. Even though Woodside is the AFL club’s major sponsor, there is every chance she would have been booed – that’s life in Perth.
Woodside also had to defend O’Neill from what it described as “personal vitriol” involving violent imagery from Fortescue founder and executive chairman Andrew Forrest in 2023 soon after her home was targeted by green activists.
“Let’s talk about Meg,” Forrest said on Perth radio. “Meg is hard-edge trained by the biggest liar we’ve ever seen around climate change over the last 40 years, and that’s ExxonMobil.
“She’s been parachuted in here, bringing in all ExxonMobil’s ways. I’m simply saying can we please look at the fact that Meg is driving an agenda to get carbon bombs going as quickly as possible.”
In August that year, climate activists targeted her Perth home, planning to throw paint while an ABC Four Corners crew filmed the protest. Police foiled the attempt, but the incident sparked a bitter confrontation between O’Neill, Woodside and the national broadcaster over editorial judgment.
O’Neill denounced the targeting of her home – where she was present with her daughter – as an “unacceptable escalation” by extremists. When it emerged that Four Corners had prior knowledge of the protest, O’Neill and Woodside publicly called out the ABC, with Western Australia Premier Roger Cook writing to then ABC chair Ita Buttrose calling the broadcaster’s actions “morally wrong”.
While inherently private, O’Neill is not afraid to take a stance on matters personal to her. Married to wife Vicky, she recently shared a stage with the polarising former boss of Qantas, Alan Joyce, to discuss LGBTQ+ issues.
At BP, O’Neill inherits a company that has already begun retreating from ambitious climate targets. BP has scaled back renewable energy investments and refocused on profitable oil and gas operations – moves that pleased investors but dismayed climate advocates. O’Neill’s track record suggests she’ll accelerate these plans, prioritising shareholder returns and energy security arguments.
She will now head to the UK – a country where coal mining is finished and “Just Stop Oil” protests are increasingly regular – but so too is the growing resentment among the British population of activism disrupting their own daily lives. All while household energy prices remain 44 per cent higher than just four years ago.
Extracted in full from: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/bp-appoints-fossil-fuel-standardbearer-meg-oneill-to-accelerate-oil-and-gas-pivot/news-story/8817a88140533372aef2d7da318c75d2
