Exxon Mobil Corp. is partnering with Microsoft Corp. to crunch trillions of bits of data as the oil titan seeks to more than triple shale-oil production in the Permian Basin in less than a decade.

The low break-even costs to pump in the Permian are forcing Chevron to be more efficient everywhere, Wirth said, from the deepwater platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to its liquefied natural gas plants.

U.S. oil and gas producers expect their borrowing ability to increase over the next few months, leaving them open to invest in new shale assets, particularly the Eagle Ford in Texas.