the asset and, and develop it further ourselves? Um, so, uh, so we're- we're excited to see, uh, what comes out of the data room and, and the bids, um, you know, in another month or so. Thanks for that question. Okay. And Phil's, uh, follow up, I think Dan I'll direct, uh, straight to you. Is are you still considering an SIB given the dividend increase? Yeah, thanks Phil. We talked about this, uh, you know, in our- in our kind of prepared remarks. Uh, but, but it's probably worth, um, talking a little more. I mean, the short answer is yes. We are- we are considering an SIB. And, and just stepping back, you know, we, we have a long standing philosophy, I think, as you know to return surplus cash to shareholders. You know, it starts with a reliable and growing dividend, which we've demonstrated over many years. And, and, of course this morning's announcement of a-… we've demonstrated over many years, and, and, of course, JU this morning's announcement of a sizable increase is, is another step in, in, in that, um, in that direction. Um, after, you know, dividends, our next vehicle for surplus cash is the NCIB, NCIB, it's simple, efficient and flexible. Um, we used it certainly to the max in, in 2021. We had a, a program where restarted in, in may, June. We, we, we bought a bunch of shares. We launched a new program in June. We ended up accelerating that to, to wrap up early. Um, over the course of 2021, we repurchased, uh, over 2.2 billion through that program. And just, uh, you, January 31st, yesterday, we wrapped up that program with our acceleration through January 31st of another incremental $450 million. So over 13 months, about, about $2.7 billion, uh, through the NCIB. But as you know as well, we're limited to 5% of outstanding shares annually in that program. Um, our next renewal would be late June, uh, of this year. We, we certainly plan to, to do that. Um, but looking at our cash balances and our outlook, you know, for, for, for strong cash flow, um, we're anticipating taking action on shareholder returns, additional action be- before renewal of the NCIB in late June. We haven't made a final decision, but we certainly heard the market's feedback, um, strong preference, uh, for NCIB, and, and that's our lead case at this point. Okay. Um, operator, uh, can we turn it over to you now, please, to go to the live Q&A line? Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press * 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the # key. Our first question comes from Dennis Fong with CIBC World Market. You may proceed with your question. Hi, good morning, and, and thanks for taking my questions. Uh, the first one follows in line with, uh, Dan's comment there on, um, on returning cash back to shareholders. Obviously, Imperial Oils in an enviable position with respect to leverage. Can you maybe describe what you view as the ideal capital structure for, in your opinion for the company, and how we should be thinking about that, obviously balancing the available free cash that you're generating, the relative CapEx that you have already outlined with your 2022 guidance, as well as, uh, the various other leverage that you have in returning cash back to shareholders, thanks. I'll, I'll turn that question over to Danny, he can build on his comments about, uh, about shareholder returns. Yeah, look, you know, we, we could, uh, we have about $5 billion of debt, which had for, um, you know, pretty been stable for, for, for a number of years. We, we feel comfortable with that level of debt, you know, given our, our leverage, uh, on an absolute basis and relative to peers is low. Um, it's not, it's not, um, our first move to repay the debt. So, uh, to the extent we have surplus cash, um, are, are really, you know, once we've exhausted the NCIB it's, it's used other mechanisms to, to return that to shareholders. So, um, you know, that's maybe a short answer, but I think, I think that is, um, that in a nutshell, and you see, we have a fairly, as I mentioned in my remarks, a fairly modest capital program in 2022, and, you know, at current price levels, we, we anticipate generating significant free cash flow in addition to, you know, a pretty significant cash balance, uh, right now. Great, great, thanks. And my second point in here is, uh, more on the upside, so they're maybe directed to you Brad, or to Simon. um, just with respect to Cold Lake, you've obviously seen fairly strong, um, production levels, uh, and, and a lot of success from the optimization side. You mentioned a little bit around a laser and the, the utilization of solvents, just curious as to how the optimization is, is continuing, what maybe some of the next steps happen to be, and what does that potentially mean for project like Grand Rapids, which was potentially going to ut- utilize existing, uh, steam infrastructure in the area. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for that question, um, Dennis, um, you know, we, we are super excited about the progress we're, we're making that Cold Lake. Um, you know, we, we have put a lot of focus into optimizing the, the reservoir performance of, of those assets. We've continued to focus on reliability as well. And then, you know, as, as you mentioned, and, and we've commented on this call and in the past, uh, you know, we continue to look for ways to employ, um, kind of next generation solvent technologies, uh, like laser that achieve multiple objectives for us. Um, you know, they, they do have the benefit of enhancing reservoir performance, um, but equally important, they reduced the greenhouse gas emissions, uh, because they, they have lower, uh, steam and energy intensity. And so, you know, it is a continued strategy of ours to continue to, um, to deploy, uh, solvent technologies to enhance Cold Lake's performance. Um, you know, next on the docket is, uh, is Grand Rapids phase one, uh, which will, uh, employ SA- SAGD technology. And then looking a little bit longer term, uh, we, we're evaluating application of a Cyclic Solvent Process, uh, we refer to a CSP which allows us to replace steam with propane and, and achieve even further reductions in, uh, in greenhouse gas intensity while improving reservoir performance. And in the case of CSP, uh, we've, we've already piloted that, uh, quite successfully, and so, now looking at the further applications. So, you know, I think over, over the, the coming quarters and, and years you're are gonna continue to hear us talk about the evolution of these technologies, how they're integral to both our, our reservoir optimization, but also our, our greenhouse, greenhouse gas intensity reduction objectives. And, and I'm sure in our, in our upcoming Investor Day, we'll spend some more time talking about each of those and, and how