Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome to the quarterly earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] This call is being recorded. If you have objections, please disconnect at this time. I'll now turn the call over to Mr.

Rich Kinder, executive chairman of Kinder Morgan. Sir, you may begin.

Rich Kinder -- Executive Chairman

Thank you, Ted. And as usual, before we begin, I'd like to remind you that KMI's earnings released today and this call included forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as well as certain non-GAAP financial measures. Before making any investment decisions, we strongly encourage you to read our full disclosures on forward-looking statements and use of non-GAAP financial measures set forth at the end of our earnings release, as well as review our latest filings with the SEC for important material assumptions, expectations, and risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated and described in such forward-looking statements. As we begin 2023, it seems to me an appropriate time to look both backward and forward.

Through the rearview mirror of today's earnings release, we see that 2022 was a very good year for Kinder Morgan. We again produced strong cash flow, well in excess of our budget, and use that cash flow to pay our investors a healthy and growing dividend, fund our expansion capex, maintain a strong balance sheet, and buy back shares on an opportunistic basis. In short, we are continuing to follow the financial philosophy that we have stressed for years. Looking forward, we released in December our preliminary budget for 2023, and it shows another year of living within our means, even in the light of increased interest costs and an expanded set of expansion capex opportunities which should drive nice growth in 2024 and beyond.

We also announced today our plan for management succession. Our CEO, Steve Kean, will transition out of his role effective on August 1st of this year. Let me just say that Steve has been a superb CEO for the last eight years, and we thank him for the dedication, the hard work, competence, and honesty he's brought to this job. On a personal note, he's been a real pleasure to work with during all his years at the company.