The surprise appointment of Meg O'Neill as BP's first outsider CEO offers the bruised $90 billion British oil company three clear strategic choices for moving forward: build, buy or be bought.
The leadership overhaul is the clearest signal yet that BP Chair Albert Manifold, who himself took office on October 1, intends to fundamentally overhaul the long-struggling oil company.
"Progress has been made in recent years, but increased rigor and diligence are required to make the necessary transformative changes to maximise value for our shareholders,” Manifold said in a statement on Wednesday.
O'Neill, a U.S. citizen, will not only become BP's first outsider CEO but also the first woman to lead a Western oil major. She oversaw Woodside's expansion in recent years into a larger player in the liquefied natural gas space.
Taking the helm of BP is a job on an entirely different scale, however.
Auchincloss radically reversed his predecessor's ambitious energy transition strategy, scrapping plans to reduce BP's oil and gas production and expand its renewables business.
Following heavy pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, Auchincloss in February vowed to further focus BP's operations on its legacy business as returns from renewables languished.
BP has revived its oil and gas division with several new upstream projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Iraq, and Libya as well as a major oil discovery in Brazil.
These changes appear to have gone down well with investors.
BP's shares are up 10% so far this year, outperforming Shell, Chevron and TotalEnergies.
O'Neill thus inherits a company moving in the right direction.
But she will now be tasked with further improving BP's operational and financial performance under the supervision of Manifold, who seems to be far more involved in the daily running of the company than his recent predecessors.
