ConocoPhillips announced that Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance is stepping down after 14 years, with Chief Financial Officer Andy O'Brien named as his replacement effective September 1. Lance will move into an executive chair role. The leadership transition comes as the company posted its strongest quarterly profit since 2022, with second-quarter net income of $3.9 billion, or $3.23 per share, more than double the $2.0 billion recorded a year earlier. O'Brien, who joined ConocoPhillips in 1997 and became a member of the executive leadership team in 2022, said delivering major projects and a cost reduction program that underpin a $7 billion free cash flow inflection is a hyper focus. Konnie Haynes-Welsh will become chief financial officer. The company is midway through a multiyear plan to add $7 billion in free cash flow by 2029, a goal that depends heavily on completing the Willow oil project in Alaska, which underpins nearly 75% of the free cash flow growth plan and whose price tag was revised upward last year to as much as $9 billion.
ConocoPhillipsCEO transition and CFO appointment, with strong Q2 earnings and cost program, but leadership change adds uncertainty.
