Comstock Resources is a growing independent energy company based in Frisco, Texas, engaged in oil and gas acquisitions, exploration and development. We have a solid record of growth in oil and gas reserves and production driven by both successful acquisitions and by a successful exploration and development program.
Our oil and natural gas operations are focused in three primary operating areas, the East Texas/North Louisiana, South Texas and West Texas regions. In addition, we have properties in Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Much of our historic growth has come from acquisitions of producing oil and gas properties. In recent years our growth has primarily come from the drill bit. Since 1991 we have acquired 1.1 trillion cubic feet equivalent ("Tcfe") of proved oil and gas reserves in 38 transactions at an average cost of $1.17 per thousand cubic feet equivalent ("Mcfe").
Our business strategy is to continue to build shareholder value by exploiting our existing reserve base, pursuing exploration and acquisition opportunities in our core operating regions, maintaining an efficient cost structure, and having substantial financial flexibility.
Given the current weak natural gas prices, we are focused on growing our oil reserves on our properties in South Texas and West Texas.
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During 2011 our drilling program grew our production by 31%, mainly from continued exploration and development on our natural gas properties in the Haynesville and Bossier in North Louisiana and our oil properties in the Eagle Ford shale in South Texas. During 2011, we spent $829 million on exploration and development activities, including $436 million to drill 87 (47.7 net to us) wells, $129 million to complete 34 wells that we drilled in 2010, $256 million to acquire additional leases, and $8 million on seismic data, recompletions, workovers, abandonments, production facilities and developmental leasehold. During 2011 we also spent $219 million to acquire 164 billion cubic feet equivalent ("Bcfe") of proved reserves, primarily oil, which is mainly in our new West Texas region.
For 2012, our capital budget is $458 million, $351 million of which we plan to spend on oil focused projects in South Texas and West Texas to drill 67 (55.5 net to us) wells and to complete eight (5.7 net to us) wells that were drilled in 2011. Twenty-four of the 2012 wells will be horizontal wells targeting the Eagle Ford shale. We also plan to spend $107 million during 2012 to drill 17 (5.1 net to us) wells and complete wells drilled during 2011 in the Haynesville/Bossier shale formations.
The last element of our business strategy is to manage our balance sheet to insure that we have substantial financial flexibility to execute our business plan. We strive to fund our drilling activities primarily with operating cash flow. Following a major acquisition late in 2011, we plan to supplement our 2012 operating cash flow with proceeds from planned divestitures.
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