Lookout BP, here comes Meg.

Lookout UK based environmentalists, here comes Meg.

In what was something of an unexpected move, Meg O'Neill has resigned from her four and half year stint at the helm of Woodside, to become the first woman to lead a major oil player as she moves to London to become the BP's new CEO.

Aside from the egg on the face of O'Neill executive assistant ("Didn't you wonder what all those private, evening Zoom calls were about?" Woodside chair Goyder must have asked), O'Neill's move says more about what's in store for BP than it does for what's in store for Woodside.

In Perth, Liz Westcott, Woodside's EVP and COO Australia has already stepped up into the CEO in an acting capacity. And who knows, she might get a taste for the top and be anointed as Woodside's successor. The smart money is on an internal recruitment process to keep on keeping on and with Goyder on his way out in the nearish future, the pressure is on to get a new CEO bedded in as soon as possible.

But it's over in London, in BP's plush St James's Square head offices, where the real changes will be felt.

O'Neill has been snapped up by the British giant in what is a clear indicator that the firm is looking to return to its roots – oil, baby, oil.

BP's recent travails have been well documented. As so many others have done, they ran headlong into the renewable energy transition with admirable gusto, but when the returns didn't materialise, the investors got restless, forcing a somewhat humiliating mea culpa from the executive.

"Our optimism for a fast transition was misplaced and we went too far, too fast," BP's former CEO Murray Auchincloss said back in February as he announced a major reset and winding back of that premature enthusiasm.

The firm's planned spending on "low carbon energy" was slashed from $US30 billion out to 2030, to around $4 billion, with investment redirected to fossil fuels, which BP said are its "highest return opportunities."

The reset included no new investments in "transition" projects over the coming three years, an exit from onshore wind, and a major hydrogen and carbon capture and storage cull from around 30 projects to between just five and seven "prioritised projects."

And now comes Meg – an out and out oil and gas operator who has little time for the notion of renewable energy (certainly in a professional capacity).

But while her advocacy for fossil fuels and for pushing back against accelerated decarbonisation timelines is undoubtedly what BP thinks make her the ideal person for the top job, she might find the UK's and Europe's energy attitudes different to what she experienced in Australia and before that in America.

The UK is a lot further down the road in its energy transition. Offshore wind is 25 years old over there. The government has just said no more oil and gas exploration permits. Coal power has been turned off.

With that in mind one suspects that while she's leading British Petroleum, she might well be spending most of her time looking to make the best shareholder returns on BP's international portfolio of assets.

Better get that BP petrol rewards card fired up and fuel up at the Wildbean Café as you hit the road, Meg.

We'll be watching from afar.