Good morning and welcome to Whitecap Resources' annual and special meeting of shareholders, being held this morning by audio webcast on the Lumi Meeting platform. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Whitecap's Chairman of the Board, Mr. Ken Stickland. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the annual and special meeting of the shareholders of Whitecap Resources Inc. The meeting will now come to order. As mentioned, I'm Ken Sticklin, and I'm the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Whitecap. I will act as Chair of this meeting. At the time of planning, the COVID-19 crisis prevented us from being sure we could hold our meeting in person, so it is being hosted again on the Lumi Virtual Shareholder Meeting platform. This allows registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders to vote and to submit questions and comments to the moderator to be read and addressed at the meeting. If you have a question or comment, please submit it through the system. Following the formal portion of our meeting today, Grant Fagerheim, our President and Chief Executive Officer, will make some brief remarks.
After his remarks, he will address any questions. I shall ask Jeff Oke to act as Secretary of the Meeting, and Jackie Fisher and Frank Kulyk, representatives of Odyssey Trust Company, to act as our scrutineers. I have received confirmation from Odyssey as to the due mailing of the meeting materials and the financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2021. I direct that this confirmation, together with copies of these documents, be kept by the secretary in the minutes of this meeting. Business may be transacted at this meeting if two or more persons are present holding or representing by proxy, not less than 25% of the shares entitled to vote at the meeting. The scrutineer's report has now been received, and it shows that there is a quorum of shareholders present at the meeting.
I direct that the scrutineer's report be kept by the secretary within minutes of this meeting. I now declare that the meeting is regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. On voting, we will conduct each vote by way of vote cast on the Lumi platform and those submitted by proxy. I understand that the scrutineers have tabulated all of the votes received prior to voting cutoff. If you have previously voted, you do not need to vote again when prompted. By voting again, you will revoke any previous vote made prior to voting cutoff. We will now open voting for all of the resolutions. Particulars of the votes cast on all matters will be available on SEDAR after the meeting. I direct that the scrutineer's report on all matters be annexed to the minutes of the meeting as a schedule.
I would first like to present the financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2021. These are located on the Lumi dashboard page. The next item of business is to fix the number of directors.
My name is Thanh Kang, and I move that the number of directors to be elected at this meeting be fixed at 10.
Thank you.
My name is Janice Wood, and I second the motion.
Is there any discussion or questions submitted from any registered shareholder or proxy holder on that motion?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on that motion.
Thank you. The next item of business is the election of directors of Whitecap. The advance notice date for the nomination of directors having passed under Whitecap's advance notice bylaw. The only individuals entitled to be nominated directors at this meeting are the persons named as nominees in Whitecap's information circular. Therefore, as directed by the board in accordance with the information circular, Mary- Jo E. Case, Grant B. Fagerheim, Gregory S. Fletcher, Daryl H. Gilbert, Chandra A. Henry, Glenn A. McNamara, Stephen C. Nikiforuk, myself, Kenneth S. Stickland, Bradley J. Wall, and Grant A. Zawalsky are nominated as directors of Whitecap to hold office until the next annual election of directors or until their successors are elected or appointed, subject to the provisions of the Business Corporations Act, Alberta, and the bylaws of Whitecap. The next item of business is the appointment of auditors.
I move that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP be appointed auditors of Whitecap until the next annual meeting or until their successor is appointed, and that their remuneration as such be fixed by the board of directors.
Thank you.
I second the motion.
Thank you. The next item of business is the consideration of an ordinary resolution to approve certain amendments to our award incentive plan and to approve the common shares issuable pursuant to unallocated awards under the plan until May 22nd, 2025.
I move that the ordinary resolution on page 27 of the information circular proxy statement of Whitecap dated April 1st, 2022, be approved.
Thank you.
I second the motion.
Thanks, Janice. Is there any discussion or questions submitted from any registered proxy holder or shareholder on that motion?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on that motion.
Thank you. The next item of business is to approve a non-binding advisory resolution concerning Whitecap's approach to executive compensation.
I move that the non-binding advisory resolution on page 28 of the information circular of Whitecap dated April 1st, 2022, be approved.
I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there any question or discussion submitted from any registered shareholder or proxy holder?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on that motion.
As voting has been enabled for all previous motions, if a shareholder has not voted yet, please do so now. I will take a pause while we'll tabulate. Okay. Voting is now closed. I have been advised by the scrutineers that all resolutions have been approved by more than the requisite majority and that those nominated have been duly elected as directors of Whitecap. Congratulations, directors. I declare the motions carried and the nominees for the board of directors elected. Are there any questions submitted to any on the formal business of the meeting? I will just take a pause to allow any questions. So we have one question from a shareholder, and the essence of the question relates to the tenure of directors on the board as well as the issue of succession and our diversity target for representation by women on the board.
The question is in two parts, so I'll address the first part. We certainly look at the issue of board directors' tenure, but primarily what I would say is looking at the principles that guide us in determining whether a director is appropriate for the board are issues of corporate performance and the need for certain skill sets on our board. We think that's paramount, and we do review that on an annual basis. We have a skills matrix that we've disclosed in our information circular that addresses the various skills that board members have. We feel that's appropriate for the governance of the company, but we do look at the tenure of the board, and we do agree that there are a number of members that have been on the board for a long time. We don't frankly think that's a bad thing, but we are aware of that.
On the issue of diversity, we're well aware of that. If you look at our materials, you'll see that we have endorsed a policy of diversity, that we moved our target for representation by females on our board from 20% to now 30%, which is in line with where most companies are at this point in time, and as you'll see, we have made some changes on our board this year to where we've added an additional female in replacement of one that came off our board, so it is certainly a topic that's front and center for our board and with input from our management team as well. Are there any other questions for the meeting?
No further questions.
Okay. Well, there are no more formal questions on the formal business of the meeting. Any other questions that will come in will be addressed by management and posted along with the CEO's remarks. I'll now entertain a motion that the meeting be terminated.
I move that this meeting be terminated.
Thank you.
I second the motion.
Thank you. The meeting operator is activating a poll to vote on the termination of the meeting.
Pretty sure this motion will pass, but we haven't received confirmation yet. There we are. There we are. That motion is passed. That's carried, so I declare the meeting terminated, and I'm going to invite Mr. Fagerheim to deliver his remarks on behalf of Whitecap Management. Before I turn it over to Grant, on behalf of our board of directors, I'd like to thank Grant and all members of the team, including those employees who joined us over the past year as we did a number of very important acquisitions for the company. Welcome to everybody, and thank you so much for all your hard efforts last year. Very much appreciated by the board.
Thank you, Grant.
Okay. Thanks very much, Ken. And good morning, everyone, and thank you for your time and interest in attending our 2022 Virtual AGM. I do hope that each of you and your family members have remained healthy and safe and are enjoying the spring sunshine, the great outdoors, and the playoff season that we're enjoying at this particular time. Online with us today is our management team, along with many of our valued Whitecap employees in both our office and field that continue to remain committed and focused on providing the best operating and financial results possible. Our success can and will only continue with your efforts. Sincere thanks to each of you. Importantly, we have all of our directors online with us today. The guidance and positive support through the past year has been invaluable and could not have happened without your supporting our efforts.
Thanks to each of you. We are pleased to welcome our newest director to our team, Chandra Henry, who joins us as of today. Welcome, Chandra. Before our slate of elected directors, I do want to provide a special thanks to Heather Culbert for her support and contributions to Whitecap over her term as a Whitecap director from 2017 to today. We want to wish her all the best as we know that Heather will continue to be a strong voice for energy in many, many ways. Thank you, Henry. I won't go through the list of directors as they were just gone through on the formal portion of our business, other than to say that we're very thankful to have from 2009 through to today.
We continue to look to, as a follow-up to Ken's comments, we're looking for contributions from our board from a professional standpoint and helping guide us as we move through time. I look forward to working with each of them as we move forward. I'll just do a little summary of last year, first of all, and then we'll talk about 2022. 2021 was an exceptional turnaround year from the unprecedented disruption to our lives and business that we experienced in 2020. After exiting the fourth quarter of 2020 with just shy of 64,000 BOE per day of production, 2021 started with the closing of the previously announced NAL corporate acquisition on January 4th, advancing to the closing of the TORC corporate acquisition on February 21st while drilling 53 wells in the first quarter of 2021.
We proceeded to add additional oil and gas assets to our portfolio with the Kicking Horse corporate acquisition that closed in May. We then were able to complete the acquisition of Highrock Energy on July the 2nd. Lastly, on the acquisition front, we announced the corporate acquisition of Timberrock Energy in December of 2021 that closed in early 2022. Each of these respective acquisitions were entered into and closed were most purposeful and reviewed significantly by our teams to ensure that the assets acquired could be improved to enhance additional value for our shareholders. The ultimate result was that Whitecap Resources is more profitable, more sustainable, and more resilient than it has ever been.
I must admit that if we weren't for the efforts and the get-it-done attitude of our entire office and field staff, we would not have been able to evaluate, negotiate, integrate, and operate these assets as effectively as we have. A big shout-out to our fellow Whitecappers. As a result, there's a summary of our counter-cyclical acquisition activity along with our very strong operational results in 2021, which were mighty good, I must say. Production, average production of 112,222 BWE per day, 77% oil and liquids on a disciplined development capital program of about CAD 425 million, drilling 153 or 121 net wells in our four core business units. We generated funds flow of just shy of CAD 1.1 billion, a CAD 1.82 per fully diluted share, which allowed us to exit the year with CAD 1.15 billion of debt on a CAD 2 billion bank line.
Increased our reserves over year-end 2020 by 49% on both proved, developed, producing, and total proved, and 51% on 2P reserves. On a return of capital front, we bought back 24.3 million shares, provided our shareholders with dividend payments for $126 million, bringing our total dividends paid to shareholders of $1.2 billion, $3.86, since we started paying a dividend in 2013. We sequestered and stored 1.7 million tons of CO2 on our Weyburn CO2 project, and we maintained an exceptionally strong safety and environmental performance throughout the entire year of 2021. Our team was very energized as we entered into 2022, considering the drilling opportunities for creating significant value for our shareholders along with strengthening commodity price outlook and a wide range of options available to consider. We've had a strong start to 2022 with the Q1 results that we announced a couple of weeks back on April 28th.
Production of 132,700 BWE per day, up from 120,000 BWE per day exit 2021. Cash flow of CAD 506 million, CAD 0.80 per share, up 45% from the fourth quarter of 2021. Free cash flow of CAD 250 million, up from CAD 45 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Drilled 71 wells, 63.4 net wells, using CAD 209 million of development capital. We closed the Timberrock acquisition, as I mentioned earlier, early January, and we increased our dividend by 33% in March to CAD 0.03 a month, now CAD 0.36 per year. From an operations perspective, each of our four business units across Western Canada have experienced significant success with strong drilling results and even healthier financial returns than we had been expecting. Our inventory of drilling opportunity is very large, with 5,440 wells in inventory, especially when we expect to drill between 180 to 200 wells this year.
Moving forward for the remainder of the year, we expect commodity prices to continue to remain very strong at realized prices that the Canadian energy sector has not experienced before. Currently, oil at $112 WTI, foreign exchange rate at 0.78, and natural gas prices in excess of CAD 7, awesome when you're a producer as we are. This feels much better than the lows our sector experienced in mid-2020. At this time, we are projecting to produce approximately 131,000 BOE per day for the average for the year, with an increase to 135,000-138,000 BOE per day at the end of the year. With the strong commodity prices along with efficient capital spending program we have planned, we expect to generate very substantial amounts of free funds flow after capital and dividends of over CAD 1.4 billion.
Let's talk about inflationary pressures for a moment because it is very topical. Our capital budget of $520 million was set in the fall of 2021 at a price of $70 WTI and CAD 4 per GJ AECO. Since then, cash flow net back has increased 48% from $31 a BOE to $46 a BOE, resulting in cash flow increase of $800 million to now $2.2 billion. More than enough to absorb the 10%-15% cost inflation on the $310 million balance of the year program, but we look to mitigate through leveraging our size and scale, bidding out all services, and optimizing drilling and frac design. Cost inflation on operating cost is not as significant at approximately 5%. We are now expecting operating cost to be about $14.25 per BOE.
We were able to mitigate inflation impact in Q1 as during the fall of last year, we locked in services for our winter drilling program, and I emphasize the amount of cash flows that are coming are far offset the inflationary pressures that we've seen to date. Talk a little bit about our priorities. Number one has been and will continue to be balance sheet and balance sheet management. Prudently manage the balance sheet throughout the commodity price cycle. Our debt to EBITDA ratio is less than one times at $50 WTI, which results in $800 million of debt. We expect to reach this level by the end of the second quarter, which will allow us to accelerate dividends back to our shareholders. We have the ability and desire to significantly increase our dividend by year. Stay tuned.
Base level of dividend, we recently increased our dividend 33% with our March dividend, and we want to ensure that our dividend is sustainable down to $50 WTI and never have to cut it. Production growth, our third priority. Target a 3%-5% organic growth supplemented with and enhanced by acquisitions in our share buyback program. In 2021, we grew our production per share by 11%, and we expect 12% per share growth in 2022. So we're very happy with the current growth rate for this year. Last year, as part of managing cost inflation, as we had talked about, we had the option of accelerating, like last year, I should say, as we talked about last year, we have the option of accelerating our winter drilling program to take advantage of load leveling our program while maintaining safe and consistent operations.
The impact for the growth rate in 2023 may be substantial. This may also help mitigate current inflationary pressures. Number four, share buybacks. Our objective is to use our normal course issuer bid to mitigate downside price volatility on our share price and clear large blocks in the market when available. Given current valuations relative to cash flows, it makes sense to be buying back shares at these levels where we're trading between two to three times cash flow multiple. On the new energy side, I want to talk about that for a moment. The level of federal refundable investment tax credit was modestly positive for our sector, 50% for capture and compression and 37.5% for transportation and storage that we're very actively engaged in with carbon capture utilization and storage.
Enhanced oil recovery being excluded by the federal government is a massive missed opportunity to advance decarbonization quickly and safely. But regardless, Whitecap has the technical expertise to do both EOR and saline aquifer for storage. Current projects in Alberta with Wolf and the Indigenous partners into saline storage so will qualify for the federal investment tax credit available. The Saskatchewan Carbon Hub, where we've signed five memorandums of understanding, can be used for either EOR or saline storage. Just depends on the economics, so we will see what the provincial programs look like and the details to the clean fuel standards in the upcoming couple of months. We believe that energy transformation is underway, but remain realistic about the time frames and capital required to move in this direction.
We need all types of energy along with all types of decarbonization technologies, and we feel that Whitecap is very well positioned to participate and actually lead in this regard with the personnel, the processes, and the assets we have internally. In closing, I commit that our team is energized, motivated, and ready to go. Over the past 12 years, beginning in September 2009, our Whitecap team has been able to deliver sustainable and a profitable business model throughout varying commodity price cycles, now seeing the fruits of their hard work come to realization. I can say, and I have absolute full confidence in our team, both in the field and in the office, with the assets we have under management and the processes we use on a daily basis and the opportunities that we have, we will continue to provide substantial value growth and superior returns to our shareholders.
On behalf of all of us at Whitecap, thank you for your time today, your interest in the Whitecap story, and your support of our company. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. This concludes today's webcast. You may now disconnect your lines.