Magnolia Oil & Gas Corp. announced its financial and operational results for the third quarter of 2022.
President and CEO Chris Stavros commented: "The most recent quarter was filled with mixed emotions. We are humbled by our continued strong financial and operating results and performance, yet deeply saddened by the recent passing of Steve Chazen, Magnolia's founder and former CEO. I am incredibly grateful for Steve's guidance and counsel, his steadfast leadership and importantly his friendship. We expect his legacy to continue to live on through Magnolia for years to come. The principles of the business model that Steve established during Magnolia's founding over four years ago are expected to remain unchanged. We will continue our discipline around capital spending, while maintaining low levels of debt. We expect our record of achieving moderate annual production growth, while generating significant free cash flow and strong pre-tax margins to continue.
"Magnolia delivered very strong financial and operating results in the third quarter of 2022 driven by record quarterly production and pretax operating margins of 65 percent, and despite a sequential quarterly decline in oil prices of more than $15 per barrel. Third quarter 2022 production increased 21 percent year-over-year and 10 percent sequentially, and well-above the high end of our earlier guidance. The stronger production was seen in both our Giddings and Karnes asset areas and was primarily the result of better than expected well performance. The results were achieved while spending just 30 percent of our adjusted EBITDAX during the quarter. We repurchased 3 million shares during the third quarter, reducing our diluted share count by 8 percent from the same period last year. Including share repurchases and dividends, Magnolia returned more than a third of the free cash flow generated during the quarter to our shareholders while ending the period with nearly $700 million of cash.
"I am pleased to announce that Brian Corales, Magnolia's VP, Investor Relations, has been promoted to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Brian has done an excellent job at Magnolia since 2018 in helping to both manage and communicate the Company's strategy as well as shaping our message to the broad Financial Community and other stakeholders. Magnolia's strong focus on its shareholders and emphasis on generating improved stock market value over time make Brian uniquely qualified to serve as CFO. The selection and elevation of a qualified internal candidate to the CFO role is indicative of Magnolia's strong "bench" of talent within our team."
Third quarter 2022 total company production averaged 81.5 Mboe/d, representing a 10 percent sequential increase and was 21 percent higher than the prior year's third quarter. Compared to the same period last year, Giddings and Other production increased 30 percent. Overall production exceeded our expectations during the quarter despite spending just 30 percent of adjusted EBITDAX on drilling and completing wells. Production was above the high end of our guidance due to stronger well performance in both of our operated areas, ongoing operating efficiencies, and slightly higher non-op activity.
Magnolia continues to operate two drilling rigs and expects to maintain this level of activity through next year. One rig will continue to drill multi-well development pads in our Giddings area. The second rig will drill a mix of wells in both the Karnes and Giddings areas, including some appraisal wells in Giddings. Magnolia continues to drive operating efficiencies, especially in the Giddings area. When comparing the 2022 total cost per stimulated foot for its development wells to the wells drilled in 2019, well costs per stimulated foot during this year have declined by 26 percent, despite the inflationary environment seen in oil field service costs. This improvement is directly attributable to the efficiencies that our operations and supply chain teams have captured at Giddings which include faster drilling and completion times, longer laterals, multi-well pads and improved asset knowledge.
We are planning a very active operating program for the fourth quarter which should provide us with a strong start to 2023. We estimate that our fourth quarter production should be in the range of 77 to 79 Mboe/d, as most of the wells in our program are expected to come online toward the latter part of the quarter. This includes the largest single pad we have drilled to date at our Giddings area. D&C capital during the fourth quarter is expected to be approximately $125 to $140 million due to a higher number of well completions and higher anticipated non-op activity in the period. As a result, we expect our total production to exit the year at a level that exceeds the record production achieved during the third quarter and further benefit production volumes during the first half of 2023. Oil price differentials are anticipated to be approximately a $3 per barrel discount to Magellan East Houston and Magnolia remains completely unhedged for all its oil and natural gas production. The fully diluted total share count for the fourth quarter of 2022 is expected to be approximately 216 million shares which is 6 percent lower than fourth quarter 2021 levels.
Our operating plan for 2023 is currently expected to be very similar to this year. We plan to operate two drilling rigs and one completion crew and anticipate that our capital spending for drilling and completing wells to be well-below our imposed ceiling of spending within 55 percent of our adjusted EBITDAX at current product prices. We estimate that next year's capital program and activity levels should deliver full-year 2023 production growth of approximately 10 percent compared to 2022 levels while generating a significant amount of free cash flow. We plan to re-evaluate our current annual dividend rate of $0.40 per share early next year based on our full-year 2022 financial and operating results. Our share repurchase program and the payment of a secure, sustainable and growing dividend remain important components of Magnolia's total shareholder return proposition.