HOUSTON, TEXAS (By Chevron, 30.Mar.2026, Words: 642) — Leaders with Chevron Corporation said that new technology and investment can help deliver reliable, affordable energy as demand grows. Speaking at CERAWeek 2026’s opening session, Chevron chairman and CEO Mike Wirth said that the world will need many forms of energy for decades.
Key facts about rising energy demand
— the global population continues to grow.
— AI and data centers are accelerating electricity demand.
— a natural decline in existing fields is creating a large supply gap—“equivalent to five Saudi Arabias over the next decade,” Wirth said.
— more supply can help stabilize prices and reduce the risk of shocks.
Energy addition can maintain reliable supply
Wirth explained that the world continuously needs more energy. As demand rises, he said, the focus should be on adding supply instead of replacing one source with another.
“This is energy addition, not transition,” Wirth said. “Energy abundance underpins long-term success.” He pointed to the link between reliable, affordable energy and national economic benefits, adding that realizing those gains will require investment, new infrastructure and more effective use of data and AI.
Technology and AI unlock potential to meet demand
Chevron leaders said technology, especially AI, can help the company produce energy more efficiently. They said it can also help operations run more reliably during peak-demand seasons.
Ryder Booth, Chevron’s chief technology and engineering officer, explained how new tools are speeding up progress. “What used to require days of research now happens in moments,” Booth said. “We are radically improving the speed and quality of decision-making.”
Booth said that Chevron uses its AI tools like ApEX and APOLO to accelerate technical work; these tools can help Chevron teams make better decisions, faster. He added that APOLO can predict how a well will perform before drilling starts.
AI is also power hungry
As the use of AI grows, so does the need for energy to power data centers. Existing grids and renewable buildouts are not set up to meet the growing demand in the near term.
Chevron aims to use natural gas, an abundantly available energy resource in the U.S., to help satisfy AI’s appetite. “Developing power for data centers, using more traditional sources of fuel, with a pathway to lower carbon solutions over time, is something that fits us very well,” said Jeff Gustavson, Chevron’s president of New Energies.
Reliability and affordability remain important
Gustavson also spoke about how affordability and reliability must remain priorities. He noted that this is especially true as Chevron builds its lower carbon business alongside traditional offerings. “The energy expansion discussion of all sources is really key,” Gustavson said.
Building on Gustavson’s point, Chevron leaders also emphasized that expanding supply at the pace the world needs will take multiple companies working together. Jim Gable, Chevron’s vice president of Innovation and president of Chevron Technology Ventures, said partnerships can help technologies move faster from ideas to real-world use. “We provide early customer feedback and decades of experience scaling up to help meet global energy needs,” Gable said.
Investing in many forms of energy
Keeping energy affordable and reliable requires resilient supply chains and steady production across global markets. And when world supply is disrupted, the impacts can show up quickly.
A steady global energy supply can help limit impacts from sudden disruptions. Balaji Krishnamurthy, president of Chevron’s Australia business, said meeting increasing demand would take investment in many forms of energy.
“As demand is accelerating, no single solution will be sufficient,” Krishnamurthy said. “Reliable systems require a mix of energy sources, including natural gas and LNG .”
Krishnamurthy’s point echoed Chevron’s broader theme at CERAWeek: Meeting demand will take investment across many forms of energy, along with technology. Wirth said, “That reliability matters, because it can help keep energy available when it’s needed most.”
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PHOTO CAPTION: Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth spoke at CERAWeek in 2025. Source: Chevron
