BP announced on Wednesday that O’Neill will become CEO in April, making her its first CEO appointed from outside the company and the first woman to head any of the world’s top five oil majors

International News via Reuters:

Energy industry veteran Meg O’Neill, tapped by BP to lead a shake-up at the London-based oil major, made an immediate impact when she took the reins at Australia’s Woodside Energy, clinching a deal that doubled its production portfolio.

Woodside’s 2021 acquisition of BHP’s petroleum assets in a then-$28 billion merger bulked up the Perth-based company with an international footprint during a period of industry consolidation, making it a top-10 global energy independent and a gas powerhouse. Despite O’Neill’s history of acquisitions and investments for the company, Woodside’s shares have underperformed its bigger rivals in the last five years, however.

O’Neill – a 55-year-old American from Boulder, Colorado and the first openly gay woman to helm a FTSE 100 company – joined Woodside in 2018, having spent 23 years at U.S. major Exxon. She had led Woodside since 2021. 

BP announced on Wednesday that O’Neill will become CEO in April, making her its first CEO appointed from outside the company and the first woman to head any of the world’s top five oil majors.

‘COME UP AND SEE US’

Initially promoted as acting CEO in April 2021 before being named to the post permanently that August, she brought a new, more open approach to management at Woodside, making executive floors at its Mia Yellagonga headquarters building accessible to all staff.

Australian media at the time reported on an internal memo that said “come up and see us”.

“She is very accessible to staff, she had a low ego,” a former Woodside colleague said.

Another described the graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an “engineer’s engineer.”

A regular speaker at global energy events, O’Neill built an increasingly high industry profile along with Woodside’s rising ambitions, which saw it invest in the $7.2 billion Trion oil development offshore Mexico and take a larger share of the North West Shelf gas project, once Australia’s largest.

Last year, O’Neill made a big bet on the boom in U.S. LNG exports, acquiring a company that Woodside is developing into the $17.5 billion Louisiana LNG project, part of a portfolio expansion heavily weighted to gas. 

“It was only a matter of time until Meg was poached by a major who can pay far more,” said MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic.

In November, O’Neill announced plans for Woodside to increase sales by 50% by 2032 to 300 million barrels of oil equivalent. Woodside has also been beefing up its global trading team in Singapore and poaching talent as it expands.

O’Neill has focused on buying barrels rather than exploring for them, telling multiple investor day audiences that Woodside would focus its drilling on brownfield work to tie into existing infrastructure, as opposed to launching projects from scratch.

Her appointment at BP could signal a fundamental overhaul for the energy firm, which follows three tumultuous years for the over century-old company. 

RED TAPE AND FRUSTRATION

Known as a straight-shooter, O’Neill has expressed frustration with red tape and environmental laws in Australia, where many projects need both state and then federal approval.

At Woodside’s capital markets day last month, she said the only thing holding up developing the large Browse gas fields as backfill for the ageing North West Shelf LNG facility was regulation, noting that it took seven years for final approvals to extend the project’s life by 40 years.

“If you like straight talk and clear expectations, she’s good to work with,” said an industry source who has attended meetings with O’Neill. “If you prefer a softer, consensus-led style, she will be very tough on you.”

O’Neill has walked back clean energy investments, with Woodside’s only major project still standing a clean ammonia development in Beaumont, Texas, an approach that has drawn criticism from climate activists.

At Woodside’s annual meeting in May, organisers tried to drown out the noise from activists by playing promotional videos about its projects and sponsorship of Australian rules football club the Fremantle Dockers.

“We have plenty more of these videos we can play,” O’Neill said.

Some investors have called Woodside’s plans to curb emissions insufficient, and the Climate Transition Action Plan O’Neill developed in 2024 was voted down by 58% of shareholders.

Last month, she said sentiment was changing.

“I think there’s greater recognition that as the world invests in, even the developed world invests in data centres and artificial intelligence, that that needs to be powered.”

Reporting by Helen Clark in Perth; Additional reporting by Sarah McFarlane, Shadia Nasralla and Stephanie KellyEditing by Tony Munroe, Shri Navaratnam, Elaine Hardcastle

Neither Dati, seen as a leading candidate to become Mayor of Paris in 2026, nor her lawyers could be reached for comment

International News via Reuters:

French authorities carried out searches at the Culture Ministry, private homes and the office of the mayor of the 7th district of Paris on Thursday as part of a corruption probe involving Culture Minister Rachida Dati in connection with her years as a European Parliament member, the Financial Prosecutor said.

The searches are part of an investigation two French judges opened in October into possible “active and passive corruption, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, concealment and laundering in connection with Ms Rachida Dati’s mandate as a Member of the European Parliament,” the statement added.

Neither Dati, seen as a leading candidate to become Mayor of Paris in 2026, nor her lawyers could be reached for comment.

According to French media, the searches are intended in particular to determine whether Dati was paid by then-French energy company GDF Suez in 2010 and 2011 while she was a member of the European Parliament. She has denied this.

In a separate case, French judges in July ordered that Dati and former automobile executive Carlos Ghosn stand trial for alleged corruption and abuse of power in a case focusing on consulting fees, a judicial source said.

Dati has denied irregularities in the fees she received during that time, and Ghosn, who fled Japan in late 2019 aboard a private jet to Lebanon, has denied allegations of misconduct against him.

Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Additional reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Hugh Lawson

The ruling orders Meta to disclose not only raw data but also detailed information on its sources, recipients and purposes

International News via Reuters:

Austria’s Supreme Court has ruled that Meta’s personalised advertising model is unlawful, the court said on Thursday, requiring the company to provide EU users full access to their personal data within 14 days of a request, in a decision that sets a legal precedent across the bloc.

The ruling orders Meta to disclose not only raw data but also detailed information on its sources, recipients and purposes. The court found Meta violated the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by collecting user data from third-party apps and websites and processing sensitive information without “specific, informed, unambiguous and freely given” consent for personalised advertising.

“We acknowledge the Court’s decision on this long-running matter and are reviewing the ruling,” a Meta spokesperson said.

The case was brought by Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems in 2014 and has taken 11 years to resolve, involving three Austrian Supreme Court decisions and two EU Court of Justice rulings.

“It is enforceable throughout the EU by the plaintiff, meaning that, depending on the country of enforcement, non-compliance could result in daily fines or even a prison sentence for the relevant decision-makers at Meta,” privacy advocacy group noyb, founded by Schrems, told Reuters.

The court ordered Meta to cease processing sensitive user data, such as political views or health status, dismissing the company’s claims that this was not technically feasible. The ruling reinforced previous ones on the use of personal data without explicit consent.

“Platforms like Facebook or Instagram have huge influence, for example via pushing political views on users,” Schrems said. “The decision makes clear that Meta must not use such user preferences without explicit consent by each user.”

The Meta spokesperson said that the case pertains to practices from over a decade ago, noting improvements to the company’s privacy measures, including investments exceeding 8 billion euros.

The Austrian Supreme Court said in its statement that its assessment was based on the situation as it stood in 2020.

The spokesperson said Meta no longer uses sensitive data for ad personalisation and disputes the Court’s findings on third-party data. 

EU users can now use Facebook and Instagram for free with personalised or less personalised advertising, or subscribe to avoid data usage for ads. In December, EU antitrust regulators approved Meta’s proposal to use less personal data in this pay-or-consent model.

The court awarded Schrems 500 euros ($587) in damages. Noyb stated this figure, set in 2014, predates GDPR enforcement and suggested users today might receive higher compensation.

($1 = 0.8519 euros)

Reporting by Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak, Kirsten Donovan

Police intervened when the violence escalated and sought to arrest some of the protesters

International News via Reuters:

Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannon on Thursday as a demonstration by farmers against an EU-Mercosur free trade agreement turned violent, with some protesters hurling rocks and potatoes at police and smashing windows.

Police intervened when the violence escalated and sought to arrest some of the protesters. At one point, a tractor was driven into a line of riot police, although it did not appear to have hit anyone. Some also targeted journalists.

Brussels police said they had authorised a protest with up to 50 tractors, but by early Thursday afternoon around 1,000, mostly with Belgian number plates, had arrived in the Belgian capital. They estimated the number of protesters at 7,000.

EU leaders are set to debate at a summit in Brussels on Thursday whether the EU should sign the deal with the bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Critics of the trade pact, which has been 25 years in the making, say cheap commodities could flood the market to the detriment of European producers.

Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Charlotte Van Campenhout; editing by Barbara Lewis