Australia’s Woodside Energy makes Liz Westcott its permanent CEO

By Helen Clark and Rajasik Mukherjee

PERTH, March 18 (Reuters) – Australia’s Woodside Energy on Wednesday named Liz Westcott as CEO and managing director to succeed Meg O’Neill, who departed Australia’s largest oil and gas producer in December to take the helm at British major BP.

Westcott, who had been acting CEO after O’Neill left, takes the top job as Woodside navigates a softer production outlook, with the company flagging lower output guidance for 2026 amid operational challenges and project timing uncertainties.

During O’Neill’s more than four-year tenure, Woodside merged with BHP Group’s petroleum arm to create a top 10 global oil and gas producer valued at over $40 billion and doubled Woodside’s oil and gas production.

“We consider (Westcott) to be a low-risk appointment that provides leadership skills to ensure Woodside’s suite of major operated development projects get delivered,” said Gordon Ramsay, RBC Capital Markets analyst.

Woodside shares ended the day up 0.06%.

OPERATIONS BACKGROUND TO THE FORE

Westcott, 56, joined Woodside in 2023 and has led the firm’s Australian operations, including the Scarborough gas project and Bass Strait operator transition.

Like her two predecessors, Westcott is a veteran of U.S. major ExxonMobil, where she held top roles during 25 years, working in Australia, Britain and Italy. She was also chief operating officer at EnergyAustralia.

In appointing Westcott, Woodside has stuck with its pattern of choosing a leader with an operational background as opposed to an executive from the commercial side of the industry, even as some company watchers have called for a more commercially focused leader as it enters a period of stake sales.

Woodside Chair Richard Goyder said Westcott is “someone who understands the industry…but also understands the need to be very, very strong commercially and to drive growth and opportunity.”

Described by insiders as approachable, Westcott emerged from a pool of internal candidates that analysts said included Chief Commercial Officer Mark Abbotsford and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, International, Daniel Kalms.

“She is a safe pair of hands that won’t rock the boat,” said David Tuckwell, CIO at ETF Shares.

“She must navigate a 7% to 14% production dip caused by aging assets and heavy maintenance, while simultaneously pushing the $18 billion Scarborough project to the finish line and dealing with the debt pile.”

‘BIG YEAR OF DELIVERY’

Westcott’s priorities include ensuring the Scarborough project comes online by the last quarter of this year, selling a 20% stake in the $17.5 billion Louisiana LNG project purchased under O’Neill, and getting the Trion oil project in the Gulf of Mexico up and running by 2028, she said during a media briefing.

“We’re comfortable with our gearing. We’re comfortable with our hedging position, so our capital allocation is something we reflect on,” she said.

“But we know 2026 is a big year of delivery.”

Kevin Morrison, analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said Westcott will be most closely judged by how she manages the Louisiana LNG project, including cost pressure.

“We may see more inflationary impacts due to higher energy prices following the conflict in Iran,” he said.

In Australia, the world’s No.3 LNG exporter, Westcott’s biggest challenge will be getting the large Browse gas field sanctioned to feed the North West Shelf LNG plant, which is down from five trains to four.

“We need to make sure we’ve got an investable project. We need to make sure we’ve got strong commercial agreements and that we’ve got the environmental approvals we’ll need to proceed,” Westcott said.

(Reporting by Helen Clark in Perth and Rajasik Mukherjee and Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona, Shailesh Kuber, Christopher Cushing and Tony Munroe)