Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Monday that the dispute with Chevron over Hess Corporation‘s oil assets in Guyana likely will not be resolved until 2025.

“My view is it will go into 2025,” Woods told CNBC’s David Faber at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles. Hess had previously indicated that the case could drag into next year.

“This is an important arbitration obviously not only for Exxon Mobil but for Chevron and Hess,” Woods said. “What we need to do is take our time to do what’s right to make sure that we do all the due diligence and we get to the answer — the right answer.”

Exxon is claiming a right of first refusal on Hess’ assets in Guyana under a joint operating agreement that governs a consortium that is developing the South American nation’s prolific oil resources. The oil major filed for arbitration in March at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.

Woods said the panel of arbitrators is still being selected and then the process will go into discovery. The CEO has repeatedly expressed confidence that Exxon will prevail in the dispute, saying the company wrote the agreement that governs the consortium.

Chevron has rejected Exxon’s claims that the agreement applies to its pending all-stock deal to acquire Hess, valued at $53 billion.

The arbitration court will ultimately decide the timeline of the proceedings, but Hess has asked the panel to hear the merits of the case in the third quarter with an outcome in the following quarter. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told analysts during the company’s first-quarter earnings call in April that this timeline should allow the parties “to close the transaction shortly thereafter.”

“We see no legitimate reason to delay that timeline,” Wirth said.

If Exxon prevails in the case, Chevron’s deal with Hess would break up. Woods has said Exxon is not making a play to buy Hess, but wants to defend its right in the interest of shareholders and find out what value is being placed on Hess’ Guyana assets.

Hess has a 30% stake in an oil patch called the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana. Exxon leads the project with a 45% stake while China National Offshore Oil Corp. maintains 25% stake.

Natural gas demand will likely outpace expectations as electricity consumption surges from artificial intelligence and data centers, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth told CNBC on Monday.

“It’s a little hard to quantify right now because this is evolving so quickly on the AI side,” Wirth told CNBC’s Sara Eisen at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference in Los Angeles. “But I think demand for natural gas is likely to be higher than what people have been estimating up until now.”

Wirth said the move to electrify the nation’s vehicle fleet, heating and manufacturing as well as the increase in demand from data centers will require reliable and affordable backup power generation.

Wind and solar offer affordable power in some regions, but they still face challenges in generating enough electricity to meet peak demand because they rely on variable weather conditions, the Chevron CEO said.

“Data centers don’t shut down when the sun goes down,” Wirth said. “We need to have the ability to provide baseload supply for all of these needs. I think natural gas will be a big part of that equation going forward.”

Wirth said coal plants are being phased out in the U.S., nuclear power is expensive and geothermal energy is not as proven as other power sources. “You come back to natural gas as the most likely source of that reliable baseload supply,” the CEO said.

Electricity demand in the U.S. is expected to surge by as much as 20% by 2030, according to research from Wells Fargo published in April. Natural gas demand could increase by 10 billion cubic feet per day, or bcf/d, by the end of the decade as a consequence, according to Wells. To put that in context, the U.S. currently consumes 35 bcf/d for power generation and 100 bcf/d total.

Goldman Sachs is forecasting that natural gas will provide 60% of the new electricity demand from data centers, while renewables will provide 40%. The investment bank says natural gas pipeline operators such as Kinder Morgan, Williams Cos. and producer EQT Corp. stand to benefit.