Clay Gaspar
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Devon Energy
Thank you, Rick. I've always appreciated your guidance, mentorship and insight, and I'm truly grateful for your confidence. Good morning, everyone. Let's start on Slide 3, where I can cover the outstanding 4th-quarter results. For the fifth quarter in a row, we have again beaten consensus confirming how well that integration is going.
The newly combined Rockies team is doing a fantastic job of learning from each other and creating additional value. From a capital perspective, we also had an outstanding quarter. This performance was primarily driven by the good work of the Delaware team. In addition, lower workover costs combined with higher volumes drove our per unit expenses significantly lower, boosting our margins and free-cash flow generation.
Thanks to our strong operating performance, we generated $738 million in free-cash flow, of which we returned $44 million to shareholders via our fixed dividend and share repurchase program. We strongly believe that Devon presents a compelling investment opportunity and thus, we leaned into our share repurchase program this quarter by buying $300 million of Devon stock. Additionally, we strengthened our financial position by building cash this quarter to about $850 million, up 25% from last quarter.
Now let's turn to Slide 4 and talk about some of the exciting news related to the Eagle Ford. On January 31, Devon and VPX signed an agreement to dissolve our partnership in the Black Hawk field. We expect to close on April 1, at which time we will hold approximately 46,000 Black Hawk net acres with greater than 95% working interest in these assets, primarily in DeWitt County. This will be a high-quality, high working interest, fully controlled and concentrated position. After close, we will have approximately 700 undrilled locations remaining in the Eagle Ford, 550 of which will be in the Black Hawk field. This is nearly a decade of drilling inventory at the current pace.
A key value driver for us to dissolve this JV was that we are confident that we can save more than $2 million in D&C cost per well with improved well design, supply-chain and application of operational technology from our other basins. The combination of this cost-reduction and control of the go-forward development significantly enhances returns and provides a material uplift to the NPV of our position.
Now let's turn to Slide 5 and talk about the updated and improved 2025 outlook. Moving forward, we remain committed to creating value to our shareholders with disciplined investment and growth per share basis. You should also note that we're bumping our 2025 production and reducing our capital from the soft guide that we provided on the last call. We now expect to deliver 815,000 BOE per day, including -- excuse me, 383,000 barrels of oil per day. For capital, we expect to invest $3.9 billion or $200 million lower than the soft guidance we provided back-in November. We expect these improvements to drive more than $300 million in additional free-cash flow this year. As displayed on the right-side of the slide, these numbers add-up to a very impressive capital efficiency as compared to our peers of this highly competitive industry.
Turning to Slide 6, let's discuss the 2025 outlook from an asset perspective. The Delaware Basin will account for greater than 50% of our total investment for the year. We expect another year of strong performance and plan to operate 14 rigs and three completion crews while bringing online about 265 gross wells. As we have touched on in the past, we are leaning into a higher allocation of multi-zone projects as compared to historical levels, allowing us to balance rate-of-return, NPV and inventory. Based on the success of 2024, we see tremendous benefits from the multi-zone developments by minimizing depletion effects between depleted dependent zones, feathering in derisk secondary targets and results that yield a more robust and sustainable inventory over-time. An area that I've been extremely impressed with is our ability to continue to find ways to accelerate our operational efficiencies. In 2024, we saw about 15% improvement in both our feet drilled and completed feet per day metrics. This operational efficiency drives higher well returns and free-cash flow generation. For 2025, I expect this momentum to continue and I'm excited to see additional value-creation from this work.
Shifting to the Rockies, we possess a unique combination of assets that can provide growth and free-cash flow. Approximately three-fourth of the Rockies capital spend will be directed towards the Williston Basin. With the impressive results to date, strong progress on the integration and a long inventory runway, most of the capital will be focused on the western part of the Williston Basin. We believe that this three-rig program balances flat production, impressive returns and an impressive inventory life.
Since taking over the Grayson Mill asset, the organization has identified many opportunities to further enhance our investment. In just a few months since closing, we've already identified $50 million in capital and expense savings for the year, fully capturing our announced synergy target. We're not done and expect additional savings on operating expenses as well as capital savings. The early wins of $600,000 in savings per well on D&C cost tied back to the drilling and completion pace, supply-chain wins and leveraging operational improvements such as self-sourcing sand and simul.
In the Anadarko Basin, the past few years have benefited from the Dow JV, which was set to-end mid-2025. With the success of this partnership, we have agreed to extend the JV for another 49 drilling locations for $40 million in drilling carry. Activity for the new agreement is planned to start in the second-quarter of this year.
Turning to Slide 7, and before I hand the call-off to Jeff, I want to address a common question that I've been asked since the leadership change was announced, and that is what will be different for Devon going-forward. If I had to capture the transition in two words, it would be continuity and opportunity. As many of you know, Rick and I have worked together for over 10 years and come from a similar background. Together, we build a strong foundation for Devon and we're both excited about the next chapter for this great company.
Under continuity, I see continuing to focus on the following. First, Devon's strategic priorities and values will continue to be central for the company. Second, operating excellence will remain foundational. In order to succeed in this industry, we must deliver on the fundamental aspects of how we convert resource to value. And third, we remain committed to delivering value to our shareholders and maintaining a fortress balance sheet. We will continue to deliver sustainable, growing fixed dividend as well as executing on our share repurchase program.
As far as the opportunity, I see several needle-moving prospects. First, we will focus inward to further improve our capital efficiency and margin expansion. Second, we will enhance our base production and organically expand our deep inventory. Third, we will further embrace our value-creating technology across the company and promote innovative thinking from our outstanding employees. We are already working on several value-focused opportunities and you will hear more about this in the coming quarters.
With that, I'll now hand the call over to Jeff.
