She receives a base salary of A$2.2 million and a total of $4.4 million in varied short and longer term incentives, called the executive incentive scheme. 

 

The larger share represents an absolute total and typically Woodside's executives fall somewhere within that number as it is based on a series of KPIs and a ‘scorecard'. Broken down 12.5% will be cash, 27.5% restricted shares with a three-year vesting period. 30% restricted shares with a five-year period and 30% performance rights with a five-year period. 

 

All this was at the bottom of a three-page release fulsome in its praise of the US-born MIT graduate. 

 

Shares and performance rights are voted on at the AGM of April. 

 

When she joined in 2018 as COO she was awarded 133,366 shares and the board has approved a sped up vesting of the remaining 37,048 on her appointment. 

 

Woodside introduced its executive incentive scheme in 2018.

 

In 2019 then CEO Peter Coleman  agreed to receive no cash award under the EIS and rather took shares subject to a three-year deferral period. 

 

"Overall, the CEO's award has been reduced by approximately 17% as a result of these decisions," the company said then. 

 

Despite that his take home pay was  $7.4 million in 2019, and $8.7 million in 2020. 

 

In 2018 it was $8.8 million. When he joined in 2011 he got $2.1 million in salary, a $3 million signing bonus in shares and woulld be rewarded with other short- and long term incentives. 

 

Last year Santos chief Kevin Gallagher took home $8 million and $11 million the year before  after hitting targets for a complex group of KPIs earning short- and long term incentives. 

 

When there was talk he was up for the top job at Woodside, a rumour he never did too much to quash, he wound up with a $6 million bonus provided he stuck around at Santos another five years. 

 

Gallagher's pay packet comes with a strong Santos share price of course and the company has bounced back in line with the oil price, though remains below the near-$8 per share highs of early 2020, and has been declining since June. He is also knee deep into his company's third acquisition / merger in three years, which helps. 

 

Oil Search's departed managing director Dr Keiran Wulff officially resigned on medical grounds, despite the board airing allegations of bad behaviour also when he left.

 

Thanks to that medical resignation he kept the unvested performance rights worth over $800,000 and depending on the upcoming AGM, could be in line for another $1.7 million. 

 

That depends on a shareholder vote and those on the register were not kind to the executive team last AGM, voting ‘no' at a rate of 75% on remuneration, though given it is incorporated in PNG it remains a protest not a proscription. 

 

(Let's not even mention Rio Tinto's departed CEO...). 

 

Like Oil Search, Woodside shares have not recovered in tandem with oil and spot LNG prices. They have fallen steeply this week since the company first confirmed the discussion of the all-scrip merger with BHP's petroleum division, and then actual deal. Reports in The Australian suggest the company drove the deal after Coleman's unexpected April departure. 

 

The $41 billion deal is voted in in June. 

 

However, O'Neill's three scorecards of 2020 saw ‘target met', ‘above target' and ‘above target'. 

 

Her EIS as a maximum percentage was 59.4%, at the high range for the executive team, but the reduced EIS as a maximum saw it go down to 41.6% after board discretion to reduce the award by 30%. 

 

Her appointment as interim CEO was widely welcomed by analysts, and she is reportedly well liked in the organistion, especially after opening the exclusive executive levels to the mortals on floors below. 

 

Though some analysts have pointed to a background heavier on operations than finance and markets, the consensus was that she would be a smart internal pick. In her interim position, which ran a long four months, she has fronted the APPEA conference and press, and also had to cull some 80 staff in recent weeks. 

 

(Though Energy News did hear the redudant did not get boxes to pack up belongings before their same-day departures).   

 

But ultimately, even if O'Neill turns in a stellar performance and the share price rises again, running a more complex company with twice as many shares on issue and a possible second listing on a globally significant exchange, a company with double the production and a far larger, more complex geographical and jurisdictional footprint, and she also makes a final investment decision on Scarborough after its three delays, and farms down Sangomar (and Pluto Train 2, and the Scarborough field), she still gets less than the man who preceded her.