The African Energy Chamber (AEC) – as the voice of Africa’s energy sector – is honored to announce Meg O’Neill, CEO and Managing Director of Woodside Energy, as “Energy Person of the Year.” The award recognizes O’Neill’s nearly three decades of experience in the global oil and gas industry and her unwavering commitment to ensuring a just African energy transition, which has resulted in exceptional project delivery and multi-billion-dollar investments in Africa’s oil and gas resources.
O’Neill will receive the award at African Energy Week: Invest in African Energy 2024 – the AEC’s annual event and the official meeting place for Africa’s energy industry – taking place in Cape Town on November 4-8. The award is given to individuals who have made substantial contributions to the African energy sector and advocated for a more inclusive industry. O’Neill is the first non-African to receive the award, with previous awardees including the late Namibian President Hage Geingob (2023) and President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank Benedict Oramah (2022).
Initially drawn to the oil and gas industry by her interest in travel, O’Neill launched a 23-year career with ExxonMobil, where she held senior leadership roles in ExxonMobil’s Production Company in Indonesia, Norway and Canada, as well as served as Vice President, Africa for ExxonMobil Development Company, responsible for the company’s major projects in Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique. In May 2018, O’Neill moved to Perth to join Woodside as COO in May 2018 and was appointed CEO and Managing Director in August 2021, owing to her bold vision and proven leadership capabilities. O’Neill holds two degrees in Chemical Engineering and Ocean Engineering and a Master’s in Ocean Systems Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Under O’Neill’s leadership, Woodside Energy achieved a historic milestone with the production of first oil from its Sangomar Field Development earlier this year, ushering in a new era of hydrocarbon sector growth in Senegal as the country’s first offshore oil project. O’Neill expertly led the timely execution of the project’s first phase through a period of unprecedented global challenges and above-ground risk, including the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant market instability. As operator, Woodside worked closely with all contractors to maximize local content benefits, as well as with the government of Senegal in promoting in-country value addition and championing an inclusive oil and gas industry. According to Woodside, the subsea installation of the project’s FPSO vessel was supported from Dakar and logistical supply services were provided by local businesses.
O’Neill is also responsible for driving Woodside’s expansion across the continent and to Namibia, where the Australian exploration and production company is currently finalizing a farm-in agreement to Petroleum Exploration License 87 in the deepwater Orange Basin. Initial interpretation of 3D seismic data, as well as additional discoveries by Galp in the nearby Mopane Complex, have supported the prospectivity of the acreage and placed Woodside on the precipice of future drilling activity.
Woodside’s commitments come at a time when global investors are shying away from new fossil fuel projects, resulting in stalled projects and a lack of new investment in Africa’s most prospective upstream markets. In sharp contrast, Woodside has advanced multi-billion-dollar deepwater projects and answered Africa’s call for investment in its untapped oil and gas resources, while still outlining a balanced energy transition strategy. In a recent interview, O’Neill stated that industry leaders must “stand for things that matter… There are moments when you will be tested, but acting with integrity and doing what’s right will always serve you and your team well.” The Chamber strongly believes that African energy markets not only need, but deserve this level of courageous, no-holds-barred leadership from IOC heads.
“Meg O’Neill has been able to lead and define a company that tells African countries, ‘If you have the resources and the enabling environment, then we will commit.’ Senegal sought investment in its offshore hydrocarbon resources, and Woodside answered with a $5-billion deepwater oil project. Namibia established a strong foundation of stable governance and attractive fiscal terms, and Woodside farmed into a highly prospective petroleum play. As the head of a major IOC, O’Neill has made Africa a strategic priority and is a true champion of the sector, making good on her promise to double down on investment and elevate the industry to new heights,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the AEC.
In addition to leveraging world-class technical capabilities, O’Neill is a strong supporter of social impact projects, with a focus on empowering women in the oil and gas industry. In 2023, the company made nearly $22 million in social contributions globally. Affirming its commitment to gender-based diversity and inclusion, Woodside Energy leads a “STEM in Schools” program to promote STEM subjects to youth and open up the eyes of girls and young women to careers in the energy sector.
On the local content side, O’Neill has mandated that all the company’s projects comprise a robust local content practice of hiring, training and developing African and national capacities. This is clear through the Sangomar project where increased local content expenditure has been the strongest of any oil project on the continent. Local content was a key part of the project as well as directing a lot of money towards the training and development of young people in Senegal.
Additionally, O’Neill ensured the financing of a lot of initiatives in the field of technology, and as such, a lot of people working on Sangomar’s FPSO were Senegalese. This all came from training initiated from the get-go. O’Neill has also spent a lot of money on empowering local vendors and service providers while training and developing Senegalese nationals to lead the Sangomar project. A lot of people were taken to Australia for training and they are now leading the project in Senegal. This is historic for an oil project in the country. O’Neill has essentially created the blueprint for developing an oil project while at the same time increasing local capacity.
In 2023, Former Namibian President Hage Geingob was honored for his bold and instrumental contributions to Namibia’s regulatory environment, which resulted in five major hydrocarbon discoveries in two years and large-scale projects across green hydrogen, mining and infrastructure sectors. In 2022, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African Export-Import Bank Benedict Oramah was recognized for advocating for a just and inclusive African energy transition, building the investment case for African oil and gas, de-risking transactions and raising access to private capital.
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