Good morning. My name is Hal Kvisle, and I'm the Chair of the Board of ARC Resources Ltd. Welcome to the annual meeting of shareholders of ARC. I am pleased that we can connect with so many of you today despite the challenges we continue to face with COVID-19. Although we are unable to meet in person, our goal today is to ensure that you are able to participate fully in your annual meeting. Our meeting today is hosted on the Lumi Virtual Shareholder Meeting platform. Instructions on how to ask questions and the voting procedure will appear on your screens.
Before we commence the formal portion of the meeting and I introduce you to the other directors and officers of ARC, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our employees, particularly those working in the field, whose dedication allowed us to deliver record results during a transformational year for the company. At this time, I'd like to introduce the directors and officers of ARC who are online with us today. Starting with the directors, we have Farhad Ahrabi, Carol Banducci, who joined the ARC board in late 2021, bringing a wealth of corporate and financial experience to our board. David Collyer, Susan Jones, William McAdam, Michael McAllister, Marty Proctor, Jacqueline Sheppard, and Leontine van Leeuwen-Atkins. I would also particularly like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Kathleen O'Neill, who has retired from the ARC board.
Kathleen brought great wisdom, judgment, and experience to our board over the last 13 years, and I wish her the very best in the years ahead. We also have a group of officers online with us today, including Terry Anderson, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Kris Bibby, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Armin Jahangiri, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Lara Conrad, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Ryan Berrett, our Senior Vice President of Marketing, Lisa Olsen, Senior Vice President of People and Corporate, Sean Calder, our Vice President of Production, Kristin Cerny, Vice President of Finance, Katherine Gomes, Vice President and Controller, Brian Groundwater, our Vice President of Engineering and Geoscience, Sean Stuart, our Vice President of Capital Operations, and Grant Zawalsky, our Corporate Secretary. The meeting will now formally come to order. I will act as Chair of the meeting.
Following the formal portion of our meeting today, Terry Anderson will make a few remarks on ARC's business. I will ask Grant Zawalsky to act as Secretary of the Meeting and Jennifer Oliver, representative of Computershare Trust Company of Canada, to act as scrutineer. I have received a declaration from Computershare Trust Company of Canada as to the mailing of the meeting materials to our shareholders. The scrutineer's report has now been received, and I confirm that a quorum of shareholders is present at the meeting. I therefore declare that the meeting is regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. We will conduct the voting today by electronic ballot on the Lumi platform. If you have previously voted, you do not need to vote again when prompted.
By voting again, you will revoke any previous vote which you may have made prior to the voting cutoff. To my knowledge, each resolution considered today will be passed by the proxies deposited in advance of the meeting. Voting will be open for all resolutions at the same time, which will allow you to choose to vote on each resolution immediately or wait until the conclusion of discussion on each resolution prior to casting your vote. To vote, simply click on For or Withhold or Against as applicable. You will see confirmation immediately above the voting buttons once you have submitted your choice. There will be an opportunity to ask questions on each resolution in turn. Once discussion on all items of business has concluded, voting will be closed on all resolutions.
The results will be tallied by the scrutineers once voting is completed and will be provided at the end of the formal portion of the meeting. Detailed voting results will be disclosed in a news release and posted on ARC's website after the meeting. The polls are now open on all resolutions. I would now like to formally place before the shareholders the financial statements of ARC for the year end of December 31st, 2021, and the auditor's report thereon, which were previously distributed to shareholders and posted on ARC's website. Moving on. The next item of business is the election of directors of ARC. I will now entertain nominations for 11 positions as directors of ARC.
My name is Martha Wilmot, and I nominate Hal Kvisle, Farhad Ahrabi, Carol Banducci, David Collyer, Susan Jones, William McAdam, Michael McAllister, Marty Proctor, Jacqueline Sheppard, Leontine van Leeuwen-Atkins, and Terry Anderson as Directors of ARC.
Thank you, Martha. As there are no further nominations, I now declare the nominations closed. The Board of Directors of ARC has agreed to conduct the election on an individual basis for each director in accordance with our majority voting policy. Grant Zawalsky, are there any questions for me?
There are no questions, Chairman.
Thank you. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors of ARC.
My name is Martha Wilmot, and I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, be appointed auditors of ARC.
My name is Taryn Bolder, and I second the motion.
Grant, are there any questions on this one?
There are no questions.
Thank you. The next item of business is a non-binding vote on our approach to executive compensation.
My name is Martha Wilmot, and I move that the non-binding advisory resolution concerning ARC's approach to executive compensation, as set forth in the information circular of ARC, dated March 17th, 2022 , be approved.
My name is Taryn Boulder, and I second the motion.
Grant, are there any questions?
There are no questions.
Thank you. As we have now concluded each item of formal business, we will pause for a brief moment to allow shareholders to complete the online ballot. If each shareholder could ensure that they have submitted their votes, that would be greatly appreciated. A brief pause. Thank you. I'll declare the balloting now closed. I am advised by the scrutineers that all the directors received a majority of votes in favor of election and are declared nominated as duly elected directors of ARC. PwC has been appointed as the auditors of ARC, and in excess of 96% of the votes are in favor of the say on pay vote. Grant, are there any remaining questions from the floor?
There are no questions, Chair.
I would entertain a motion that the meeting be terminated.
I move that this meeting be terminated.
I second the motion.
Thank you. I therefore declare that this meeting is terminated, and I now turn the meeting over to Terry Anderson.
Thank you, Hal, and thank you to everyone who is joining us virtually this morning. Before I get into my remarks, I'd like to echo Hal's comments and thank Kathleen O'Neill, who has retired from our board. I deeply admire Kathleen's dedication to ARC over her 13-year tenure, and we wish her the very best in her next endeavors. I'll keep my remarks relatively brief as we just finished our first quarter conference call moments ago. Simply put, 2021 was a significant and defining year for ARC. We celebrated our 25th year of proudly producing Canadian energy and completed the transformative acquisition of Seven Generations, making us the largest Montney producer and setting the stage for a record year for our shareholders.
In 2021, we generated free cash flow of CAD 1.4 billion or CAD 2.16 per share, delivered a record low operating expense of CAD 3.86 per BOE, and produced a record 302,000 BOE a day. Our field operations team continues to demonstrate operational excellence. They are creating efficiencies across our business and driving our cost structure lower, and most importantly, they are doing it safely. Further, we continue to execute on our long-term market diversification strategy with the announcement of second LNG supply agreement. ARC has secured two LNG supply agreements in the last six months, made possible by our leading emissions profile, strong financial position, and scale.
We are positioned to continue executing our strategy with other potential transactions where we can leverage our competitive strength to expand our margins and access markets where the demand for responsible energy is strong and growing. Today, ARC is stronger than ever, and I'm excited about what is to come. Our enhanced geographic and commodity optionality has bolstered our position as a leading energy company in North America. We remain committed to investing in our assets and returning capital to our shareholders in a meaningful way through our dividend and share buyback program. We continue to protect and strengthen our financial position. Our world-class assets, people, and approach to responsible development are creating exciting opportunities to grow and make our business stronger and more resilient. In closing, I want to thank our shareholders, old and new, for their continued support of ARC.
Some of you have supported us since the very beginning with our IPO in 1996, and I want to especially thank you for believing in our story for the last 25 years. Finally, I'd like to thank our employees, officers, and directors for their dedication to driving our business forward and creating lasting value for our shareholders. Thank you.