Good morning and welcome to the Whitecap Resources Annual Meeting of Shareholders, being held this morning by audio webcast on the Lumi Meeting Platform. I would like to turn it over to Whitecap's Chairman of the Board, Mr. Ken Stickland. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Annual Meeting of Shareholders of Whitecap Resources, Inc. The meeting will now come to order. I'm Ken Stickland, and I'm the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Whitecap. I'll act as Chair of the meeting. Our meeting is being hosted 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 Nazeem Nathu, representatives of Odyssey Trust Company, to act as 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, 2023. I direct that this confirmation, together with copies of these documents, be kept by the Secretary with the minutes of the 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. We have received a report from the scrutineer, 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 with the minutes of the meeting.
I now declare that this meeting is regularly called and properly constituted for the transaction of business. Today, 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 the votes received prior to the 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 the 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 this meeting as a schedule. I would like to first present the financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2023.
These are located on the Lumi dashboard page. The first item of business now 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 nine.
My name is Janice Wood, and I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there any question or discussion 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 as directors at this meeting are the persons named as nominees in Whitecap's Information Circular. Therefore, as directed by the board and in accordance with the Information Circular, Mary Jo E. Case, Grant B. Fagerheim, Chandra A. Henry, Glenn A. McNamara, Vineeta Maguire, Stephen C. Nikiforok, myself, Kenneth S. Stickland, Bradley J. Wall, and Grant Zawolsky are nominated as directors of Whitecap to hold office until the next annual general election of directors or until their successors are elected or appointed, subject to the provisions of the Business Corporations Act of 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.
I second the 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 24 of the information circular of Whitecap dated March 26, 2024, be approved.
I second the motion.
Thank you. Is there any discussion or question submitted from any registered shareholder or proxy holder?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on that motion.
Thank you, Tim. As voting has been enabled for all previous motions, if a shareholder has not voted yet, please do so. Just waiting for any final tabulation. I'm going to declare that voting is now closed. I've 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. I declare that the motion's carried and the nominees for the board of directors elected. On to other business. Are there any questions submitted on the formal business of the meeting?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions on the formal business of the meeting.
Thank you. I would then entertain a motion that the meeting be terminated. I'll poll to vote on the termination of the meeting. While we're waiting for that poll, I'd like to take an opportunity to thank one of our directors who's been with us for some time, who is retired from our board this year, Daryl Gilbert. For those of you who know Daryl, you'll know that he's been a dedicated and strong advocate for our industry. He's had years of experience that we've benefited from here at Whitecap. That's the benefit to the company and the shareholders. He's been a great supporter of the health and safety initiatives here at the company. So, Daryl, thank you for your service, and thank you very much for your input. We wish you well, Daryl. Thank you.
We've now received confirmation that the adjournment motion is passed, so I declare that the meeting is terminated. I'm going to invite Grant Fagerheim to deliver his remarks on behalf of Whitecap Management. Grant?
Thanks very much, Ken, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for your time and interest in attending our 2024 virtual annual general meeting. Along with our Chairman, Ken Stickland, in the boardroom today, and online with us is our management team, together with many of our valued Whitecap employees in both our head office in Calgary and our field offices throughout Western Canada. These are the individuals that have their continued best efforts to work every day, which allows us to achieve strong operating and financial results each and every year. We are very proud of our team, and our success continues with their hard work and commitment. Sincere thanks to each of you online today.
We also have all of our directors online with us today, and it is their invaluable guidance and stewardship that has allowed us to achieve the results we have and built Whitecap to the enviable company we are today. Big thanks to each of you. Before introducing our slate of elected directors, I do want to provide a very special thanks, as Ken had, to one of our true friends and key directors, Daryl Gilbert, for your nine years of guidance, support, and coaching as a Whitecap director. We wish Daryl all the best, as we have all learned from Daryl's passion for the Canadian energy sector, technical knowledge, and insightfulness over the many years. Thank you again, Daryl, and all the best. I also wanted to again thank our past directors that have been involved with our Whitecap journey over time over the last 15 years.
Those include Bob Welty, Greg Fletcher, Don Cowie, Murray Mullen, and Heather Culbert. By way of introduction, as we've seen in the formal parts of the meeting, I'll just run through them one more time. Ken Stickland is our chair, joined in 2013. Steve Nikiforok joined in 2009. Grant Zawolsky in 2009. Glenn McNamara in 2010. Brad Wall in 2019. Mary Jo Case, 2021. Chandra Henry, 2022. Vineeta Maguire, 2023. And myself, who is the President, CEO, and Director since 2009. I will provide a brief summary of our 2023 results with plans we have in front of us for 2024 and future years. 2023 was a very good year for Whitecap that included an updated internal division restructuring in the first half of 2023, which was followed by exceptional operational performance in the back half of the year.
The purpose of the internal restructuring was to better align each of our two divisions with specific objectives and required deliverables. These divisional teams have successfully demonstrated their ability to deliver and continue to do so. The West Division is expected to grow quite aggressively over the next five years and is comprised of our unconventional Montney and Duvernay formations, which currently produce approximately 62,000 BOE per day and have an expansive drilling inventory of 2,460 wells, as well as our conventional assets of 300 wells in our drilling inventory. This entire division is currently producing approximately 75,000 BOE per day, 60% natural gas, and 40% oil and liquids. The East Division, which grows modestly and contributes a very significant amount of funds flow to Whitecap, is comprised of our low-decline light oil, high-netback assets in Saskatchewan and Central Alberta, with 3,660 wells in our drilling inventory.
The East Division currently produces approximately 100,000 BOE per day, with oil and liquids ratio in the division of approximately 80% oil and liquids and 20% natural gas. The ultimate result of the operational reorganization is that Whitecap is more sustainable, more profitable, more resilient, and has more growth potential than we've ever had in our 15-year history.
The result of the organizational changes and concurrent operational improvements was another year in the books of strong operational and financial performance, including increasing production 8% to 156,501 BOE per day, 66% oil and liquids, 34% natural gas, or 11% production per share on a disciplined development capital program of $953 million, drilling 216 gross wells, 192 net wells across our core divisional regions, generating funds flow of $1.79 billion, or 294 per fully diluted share, or reducing our debt by almost 500 million from 1.9 billion at the year-end 2022 to 1.385 billion at the end of 2023. We exited 2023 with PDP reserves of 360.4 million BOE, total proved reserves of 792 million BOE, and proved plus probable reserves of 1.17 billion BOE, all evaluated by our independent reserve engineering firm.
As for return of capital to shareholders, we purchased 12.1 million shares for $123 million and provided our shareholders with dividend payments of $373 million for total shareholder returns of $496 million. As of the end of the first quarter of this year, our total dividends paid to shareholders since beginning in 2013 is 1.9 billion, or $4.96 per share. With regards to our carbon capture project at Weyburn, we sequestered and stored 1.5 million tons of CO2 and 17,000 tons at our Joffre Alberta project in 2023, all the while maintaining an exceptionally strong safety and environmental performance record throughout the 2023 year. Now to talk about our exceptional start to 2024.
We came into the 2024 year ready to get after the drilling opportunities we've accumulated in each of our core operating areas and get after it we did, peaking at 15 drilling rigs in the first quarter to drill a total of 96 wells. Our plan for the year includes a disciplined approach to grow our base level of production while ensuring we maintain a consistent dividend as we continue to increase our future profitability. Our objective in the 2024 budget was to focus on providing strong operational results from our drilling and optimization activities in each one of our core businesses across Western Canada. Our extensive inventory of high-quality drilling inventory is very large at 6,442 wells, which provides us with in excess of 25 years from which to grow our production and values from.
We expect to spend this year between $900-$1.1 billion of capital to drill approximately 200 wells across our assets from Southeast Saskatchewan through Central Alberta and up to Northwest Alberta, where our 2022 acquired unconventional Montney and Duvernay core assets are located. We have budgeted to deliver 165,000-170,000 BOE per day of average production, and I'm happy to report that as a result of our exceptionally strong Q1 drilling activity we announced earlier, we have increased our average production guidance by 2,000 BOE per day to 169,500 BOE per day, on which on a per-share basis is 9% growth over 2023 levels. From a cash flow perspective, we are forecasting another year of strong cash flow between $1.7-$1.8 billion.
Importantly, from a returns point of view, we not only are growing our production, we are also providing to our shareholders an annual dividend of CAD 0.73 per share, an increase of 24% relative to our first quarter of 2023. Moving forward for the remainder of the year, we expect demand for oil and liquids to remain strong, which will keep prices robust in the range of $70-$85 WTI for the 2024 year. Together with the weak Canadian dollar that is less than 74 cents on an FX rate, results in Canadian pricing in excess of CAD 105 per barrel Canadian.
With regards to crude oil price differentials, we've experienced a tightening of both the heavy and light oil differentials as a result of the TMX pipeline completion, with the light oil differentials now between $2.50-$3 per barrel range from what was $8.25-$9.30 earlier in Q1 of this year. As for natural gas prices, we expect prices to be challenged in the near term, with summer prices as low as CAD 1-CAD 1.50 range where they're currently trading. We do, however, project an average 2024 price of CAD 2 per GJ, with a winter price between CAD 3-CAD 3.50 per GJ. From a longer-term perspective, we believe that the Canadian natural gas price will improve with the commissioning of LNG Canada in 2025.
With these projected commodity prices, along with the efficient capital spending program we have planned, we expect to continue to generate substantial amounts of free cash flow after capital and dividends of approximately CAD 300 million in 2024. Allow me to talk about our priorities for our company at this time. Firstly, debt and balance sheet management. We are committed to prudently managing our balance sheet throughout commodity price cycles with the debt-to-cash flow ratios at or below one times. We currently are at 0.7 times and project to be at 0.6 times by the end of this year. Our year-end debt is approximately CAD 1.4 billion on total credit capacity of CAD 3.1 billion, providing significant excess liquidity. By year-end 2024, we estimate our debt to continue to decrease to under CAD 1.2 billion. Secondly, production growth.
On a long-term basis, we target 3%-8% organic per-share growth, supplemented with and enhanced by future acquisitions or our share buyback program. For 2024, as a result of our strong Q1, we recently increased our production guidance that I referenced earlier by 2,000 BOE per day on an annual basis, which is now 9% per share over 2023 production volumes without increasing our development capital program. With the size of our company at this time and with the assets that include oil-rich projects in Saskatchewan and Central Alberta through to liquids-rich natural gas assets in Northwest Alberta, we have the option of taking advantage and making adjustments to our program when necessary to optimize pricing while maintaining a disciplined level of debt. Thirdly, our dividend strategy.
Our dividend strategy is intertwined with our debt management and growth strategies, ensuring that our dividend is payable and sustainable down to $50 WTI oil with $2 per GJ gas pricing and to ensure we do not consider dividend reduction at any time in the future. We then expect to have future increases that are consistent with our corporate per-share growth targets. Fourthly, share buybacks. Our objective is to use our normal course issuer bid to mitigate volatility and clear large blocks in the market when they are made available. From 2017 to today, we have bought back 76.1 million Whitecap shares for $612 million. One of our key criteria when buying our own shares is to have an understanding of our current intrinsic value based on 2023 year-end independent reserves evaluation.
At year-end 2023, we estimate our proved developed producing net asset value to be CAD 6.97 per fully diluted share, total proved value to be CAD 14.42 per share, and our proved plus probable value to be at CAD 21.60 per share using a before-taxed 10% discount rate valuation methodology. Risk management. Our objective with our risk management hedging program is to protect sufficient levels of production and cash flow to allow our company to invest within the annual cash flows and pay a consistent and growing dividend into the future as discussed. At this time, we have approximately 17% of our crude oil hedged for the balance of 2024 and 16% of our natural gas hedged for the second half of 2024. 2025 includes 16% of our crude oil hedged and 20% of our natural gas production.
All these are online on our presentation. The New Energy platform that we have. The objective of our New Energy team has been to assist us in advancing to a lower carbon economy through subsurface technical expertise. We are fortunate to have Whitecap generating incremental value for our shareholders. At Whitecap, we believe that energy transformation is underway. We also think that it is important to be realistic about the extended timeframes and the large amounts of capital that are required for these projects to be completed. Specific to Whitecap, our team certainly has a number of new opportunities they have been engaged in both Saskatchewan and Alberta, which are waiting on regulatory certainty before the projects move forward.
The activities of our New Energy team are multifaceted, including identifying and engaging with large emitters who are driven to capture CO2 and other fugitive emissions, provide technical and financial project scoping for compression, transportation, and sequestration, and to work with governments on regulations and financial incentive structures to allow us to move to final investment decision. We are currently advancing on several projects that will be discussed when we have sufficient information to provide. We are keen to advance these initiatives and will keep shareholders posted as we progress. In closing, I can say that our journey over the last 15 years has brought many challenges and also many rewards as we have maneuvered from our 850 BOE per day starter kit in 2009 to successfully building a resilient, profitable, and sustainable business we are today, employing over 550 employees and 200 full-time contractors.
Production of over 170,000 BOE per day and a plan to continue to grow our oil and gas business in excess of 300,000 BOE per day with our current drilling inventory, generating annual cash flows of in excess of $1.7 billion-$2 billion, low leverage of less than one times debt to cash flow through commodity price cycles, a sustainable annual dividend of $0.73 per share with plans to grow at longer term commensurate with our production growth rate. On the macro, there are several comments to be made. Although we believe that energy transformation from oil and gas will become a reality at some point, we expect that this transformation to take a very long period of time along with copious amounts of capital being required.
Canada needs to be measured and practical in our approach to energy transformation as responsibly produced Canadian oil and gas will play an important role in advancing the world to a lower carbon economy. The global economy remains resilient with demand for hydrocarbons remaining healthy and growing. Energy affordability is top of mind for everyone along with the energy reliability. Electricity requirements continue to increase and have actually been accelerated with the increase of artificial intelligence needs on top of the growing needs for power requirements. The dynamics for LNG requirements are evolving and an evolving landscape and must consider LNG supply, demand, and overall market implications, and lastly, there will be a need for all forms of energy, not only oil and gas, but also wind, solar, nuclear, renewables, coal that are affordable, not reliant on government subsidies, and can demonstrate ability to advance to a lower carbon economy.
With a very high degree of confidence, I can say that with our Whitecap team in both the office and the field, the assets we currently have under management, the processes we employ on a daily basis, and current investment opportunities we have, we will continue on our path of creating significant incremental value for our shareholders, both in regards to growth and return of capital to shareholders. For those of you on the call that are shareholders, thank you. And for those who are not, jump on board. We'll make sure that we do our best to provide you with strong returns. Lastly, for those interested, we will be hosting a virtual investor day, our first virtual investor day on Tuesday, June 11th, between 8:30 A.M. and 10:00 A.M. Mountain Standard Time.
On behalf of all shareholders of Whitecap, sincere thank you for your time today and for your support for our Whitecap story. Cheers and have a good day.
Thank you. That concludes today's webcast.