Good morning. My name is Drew, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the 4th Quarter 2018 Earnings Release and Operations Update for Oasis Petroleum. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded.
I will now turn the call over to Michael Liu, Oasis Petroleum's CFO to begin the conference. Thank you. You may begin your conference.
Thank you, Drew. Good morning, everyone. Today, we are reporting our Q4 2018 financial and operational results. We're delighted to have you on our call. I'm joined today by Tommy Nusz and Taylor Reid as well as other members of the team.
Please be advised that our remarks on both Oasis Petroleum and Oasis Midstream Partners, including the answers to your questions, include statements that we believe to be forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those currently disclosed in our earnings releases and conference calls. Those risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our earnings releases as well as in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10 ks and our quarterly reports on Form 10 Q. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward looking statements. During this conference call, we will make reference to non GAAP measures, and reconciliations to applicable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings releases and on our websites.
We will also reference our current investor presentation, which you can find on our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tommy. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. The Oasis team continues to do a great job executing against the 4 cornerstones of our strategy that we laid out in 2017.
Those are size and scale, portfolio diversity, asset quality and financial strength. This strategy continues to serve us well in the face of volatile oil prices and associated headwinds. Our management of E and P spending within cash flow over the last 4 years has clearly demonstrated that Oasis has built and managed to withstand and even prosper in low price environments given our deep inventory, which now spans 2 low cost basins, our experienced workforce, our financial management and our ability to manage business risks. We designed this business to have the flexibility to efficiently ramp up and down depending on market conditions with an aim to generate free cash flow in the E and P business down to WTI prices of $45 per barrel. Taylor will provide more color in a moment, but I want to highlight a few key points regarding 2018 for you this morning as we wrap up the year.
First, our Williston Basin asset performance remained strong as we completed 28 wells in the quarter and were able to capture more gas in Wild Basin. In aggregate, our 4th quarter volumes averaged 88,300 BOEs per day, in line with midpoint guidance. 2nd, OMP successfully started its 200,000,000 a day gas plant in early December, bringing our total processing capacity to about 320,000,000 per day and making OMP the 2nd largest natural gas processor in the basin. Congratulations to the Oasis team for a huge win here. They did a great job using their subsurface knowledge to anticipate increasing gas production and tightness in gas processing capacity.
This allowed Oasis to stay ahead of the curve in capturing its own production and also led to multiple third party gas contracts to allow others to do the same. 3rd, in the Delaware, our delineation program is going well as we continue to integrate this world class asset and prepare for full field development. We had a few wins this year in the Delaware Basin. We successfully executed a measured development program, exceeded our financial expectations, expanded our footprint and hit our target exit rate of 6,000 BOEs per day. The team has also done an exceptional job with our service partners so that we can get our work done as well as managing our takeaway capacity while bridging 2 big takeaway projects that will start hitting in the second half of the year.
4th, in what proved to be a difficult A and D market, our team closed approximately $360,000,000 of non core asset sales, which have helped high grade our portfolio and strengthen our balance sheet. 5th, our operating efficiency continues to stand out among our peers. Page 15 of our investor presentation highlights our recycle ratio, which is top tier within our peer group, reflecting a combination of strong formidable position to generate significant free cash flow driven by top tier capital efficient inventory. With our commitment to generate free cash flow at a $50 oil price, we lowered our 2019 E and P capital plan by 40% compared to 2018. We expect capital efficiency to improve in 2019, driven by improved operating efficiency and lower service costs.
Additionally, we've entered into an arrangement with OMP that significantly reduces Oasis' portion of Williston Midstream CapEx in 2019. We have a proven track record of capital discipline. And while prioritizing cash flow generation and returns over volume growth, we have positioned the company to succeed through volatile market conditions. Going forward, development of the Williston will continue to be a significant driver of activity and provides a source of free cash flow to fund Delaware activity. Even with oil price trading well above $50 today, we intend to execute on our planned activity for 2019, and we'll use excess free cash flow to reduce leverage.
Our Williston development activity will be concentrated in Wild Basin with additional completions primarily across Indian Hills, Alger and Red Bank. Total Williston spending is expected to account for about 75% of our drilling and completion budget, driving Williston production to increase modestly year over year while generating free cash flow that more than funds a slight Delaware outspend. In the Delaware, our strategy is centered on delineating our low cost, highly economic position, understanding the subsurface and holding acreage. In 2019, we no longer expect to pick up a 3rd development rig, which was originally slated for the second half of the year. This decision reflects the current commodity outlook and also drilling efficiencies that allow us to hold our acreage with fewer rigs than originally anticipated.
I'm confident that the Delaware asset will be a major value driver for the company for years to come. With 2 core assets and 2 of the lowest cost oil basins in the United States, we have a strong inventory depth, allowing us to attract earn attractive returns at low prices. Additionally, we have differential midstream and services businesses that have been a tremendous competitive advantage. We believe Oasis is one of the best positioned companies in the sector and represents a uniquely attractive investment opportunity. With that, I'll turn the call over to Taylor.
Thanks, Tommy.
In 2019, we expect to spend between $540,000,000 5 $60,000,000 of E and P and other capital across both basins, with about 85% of that capital for drilling and completions. The program should deliver production of about 86,000 to 91,000 BOEs per day for the full year as well as in the Q4 of 2019, essentially in line with the Q4 of 2018. Our oil cut is expected to average approximately 72% in 2019, which implies a cut of about 71% for the 4th quarter. The decline in oil cut versus 2018 reflects a few different factors, including the start up of our new gas plant, which allows Oasis to capture higher volumes A program in the Williston that is more focused on Wild Basin, which has a higher GOR than our PDP base, even though the Wild Basin wells are some of the best oil producers in the Williston and a restrained Delaware program, which has a higher oil cut. In 2018, Oasis delivered strong production growth from new wells, especially later in the year.
These high rate wells also have fairly high 1st year declines, which directly impacts our base decline, which we now estimate at about 40% exit to exit. Base declines get shallower in 2020 and beyond, and the Delaware will steadily become a larger part of the development program. As a result, overall oil production in 2020 should flatten out or even slightly grow based on maintaining a program in a $50 world that generates free cash flow. In the Williston, we are currently running 3 rigs but expect to drop to 2 in the next month or so. We quickly adjusted our plan in the Q4 and released 2 rigs, so we have effectively adjusted our 2019 plan from 5 rigs to 2 rigs.
Likewise, our frac activity has gone from 3 to 2 crews. As a result, we expect to complete about 70 gross operated wells this year. Well productivity and inventory depth remain key strengths in our Williston position. And as a result, our relative well performance is very strong. Slide 12 of our investor deck highlights our 12 month average cumulative oil equivalent production per 1,000 foot of lateral versus our peers.
Our continued focus on high intensity completion optimization has paid dividends as you can see. We're at the top of the pack on a BOE and on the oil basis. As you can see on Page 1011 of our deck, early delineation results from various step out areas are also encouraging. We drilled 3 wells in Painted Woods in 2018, which are trending well and validate our view that the area is economic below $45 per barrel. While a moderated program is likely to push back painted wood's development, Oasis has a huge advantage in having this deep inventory secured with no drilling obligations.
Separately, we continue to monitor 3rd party activity around our South Cottonwood and Montana positions. Based on these results, these areas are also economical at sub-forty 5 pricing and have been moved into our top tier inventory. Economics have certainly improved with advanced completion techniques, and we are evaluating the possibility of drilling select wells in these areas as part of our 2019 and 2020 programs. In the Delaware, we expect to run 2 rigs throughout the year, completing 9 to 11 wells and volumes are expected to increase approximately 50% year over year and exit 2019 at 8000 to 9000 BOEs per day. Our prior estimates anticipated about 2 times the capital we have currently budgeted for 2019, which would have resulted in an exit rate of 11,000 BOEs per day.
We continue to enhance operations and expect productivity to improve as we progress drilling and design efficiency. Last year, we drilled a 3 well Wolfcamp A spacing test with 2 in the lower and 1 in the upper interval, which we expect to complete shortly. The remainder of the 2019 program will be primarily focused on the Wolfcamp A with additional drilling across other zones including the Wolfcamp B and C as well as the Third Bone Springs. We will also conduct another spacing test with an 8 well pad to be drilled in 2019 and completed and brought on production in 2020. As we have said in the past, it is important for us to understand productivity in space and before beginning full field development operations.
I would now direct you to slide 5 of our deck as we move on to inventory. In the Williston, we have identified 13 85 gross operated locations with breakeven pricing at or below $45 per barrel, which we think about as top tier locations. At our 2019 drilling pace, this equates to 20 years of low cost inventory in the Williston alone. This generally represents 8 to 10 wells per DSU across this acreage and has been optimized over the past 5 years that we have been drilling in full field development. In the Delaware, we stand at approximately 600 to 700 gross operator locations, which like our top tier Bakken have breakeven pricing below 45 dollars per barrel.
To close, our team has done an outstanding job of executing on our plans this year. Williston development is going well and we continue to drive efficiency and capital productivity. In the Delaware, the team has done a great job of integrating the asset, delivering solid well results and progressing our efforts to move closer to full field development. With that, I'll now turn the
call over to Michael. Thanks, Taylor.
As you've seen in years past, our low cost assets and top notch operational team delivered strong performance. This past year, we high graded our asset base further through a series of divestitures and new bolt ons in the Delaware. We are in a great position to enhance returns, drive capital efficiency across our deep portfolio and generate significant free cash flow. Since 2015, Oasis has been dedicated to living within E and P cash flow. We created OMP in 2017 to help finance midstream spending and in 2018 used a portion of divestiture proceeds to expand the D and C program.
During the Q4, we sold down Oasis interest in Bobcat and Beartooth DevCos for $250,000,000 which resulted in Oasis receiving approximately $170,000,000 in cash and $3,950,000 in OMP common units. The cash portion of the sale covered Oasis Midstream spending in 2018. As we turn to 2019, the current plan calls for Oasis to generate approximately $150,000,000 of free cash flow at $50 WTI oil price, which increases to approximately $230,000,000 at $60 per barrel. Slide 9 of our investor presentation highlights our free cash flow position and bridges the components of our free cash flow. We define free cash flow as standalone E and P EBITDA plus Oasis ownership of midstream and distributions from OMP minus cash interest, minus total CapEx attributable to Oasis including Midstream.
The Midstream portion of Oasis CapEx is minimized due to a recently approved arrangement between Oasis and OMP, where OMP will fund Oasis portion of growth capital in our Bobcat DevCo. We believe this arrangement is mutually beneficial for both Oasis and OMP as OMP can increase its ownership position at a fair value and Oasis is able to focus its spending on its E and P business. As a result of this strategy, Oasis ownership in Bobcat is expected to decline from 75% to approximately 65% by year end. In 2019, Oasis continues to expect to fund some midstream capital at the Oasis level, primarily consisting of select Delaware Midstream projects. As Tommy and Taylor mentioned, OMP is performing well and was able to sign additional third party contracts in the Q4 of 2018.
These incremental deals help protect and diversify OMP's revenue stream and OMP was able to increase its 2019 EBITDA projections despite a reduction in Oasis completion activity. With our 2nd Wild Basin gas plant ramping up over the past several months, we've met our expectation for 60% utilization in early 2019. With additional third party deals signed, we now expect utilization to ramp up to north of 90% by year end versus 80% at the last update. Going forward, Oasis stands to benefit from operational efficiency flexibility provided by OMP's total processing capacity of 320,000,000 cubic feet a day. We'll talk in more detail on the OMP call shortly, and I would also direct you to our OMP press release for more color on our continued success on the midstream front.
On the operational cost front, LOE per BOE ended up averaging $6.44 in 2018 and our exceptional performance allowed us to lower guidance through the year. We're expecting LOE to be in the $7 to $8 per BOE range in 2019 and the increase reflects increased use of ESPs in the Williston and a relatively low production base in the Delaware over which fixed costs can be spread. Williston crude differentials widened somewhat in the Q4, particularly in November December, but our marketing team did a fantastic job delivering pure leading differentials against the backdrop of historically high refinery maintenance that occurred in PADD 2. As we head into 2019, Williston oil differentials have returned to levels seen throughout the first half of last year. In the Delaware, crude differentials have been volatile, but several new haul long haul pipelines coming online over the course of 2019 should debottleneck the area for years to come.
We currently expect differentials to be in the 1 point $5.0 to 3 point and transportation and gathering expenses per BOE should be in the $2.50 to $3 per BOE range. I want to briefly address the revisions to our financials that you will see in our press release and detailed in our 10 ks. As I mentioned, our marketing team does outstanding work optimizing our price realizations, benefiting our shareholders, working interest partners and royalty owners. For example, given our size and scale in the Williston, our team engages in low risk paired buy sell transactions within the basin to reduce gathering and transportation expenses. We have historically shown all of these transactions on a net basis.
We will now be showing certain transactions on a gross basis given their characteristics. Most importantly, no restatement of our prior period financial results is required and revisions we are making to our financial statements, although they do increase both revenues and expenses, result in no change to our prior period financial results such as EBITDA, net income and earnings per share. Liquidity remains strong. Our total borrowing base is $1,600,000,000 with $1,350,000,000 committed with only $460,000,000 drawn as of December 31. Oasis had a net debt attributable to Oasis to full year 2018 EBITDA multiple of under 2.7 times with adjusted EBITDA attributable to Oasis of $936,000,000 for the year.
4th quarter EBITDA was adversely impacted by lower oil prices, wider differentials and the carryover of approximately $24,000,000 of realized hedge losses from September. Just to update you on our hedging program, we are fairly well hedged for 2019 at around 55% to 60% of our forecasted oil volumes with 1 third of those volumes swapped and 2 thirds in collars. Our 2019 WTI collars have an average ceiling of about $72 and floor of approximately $54 This strategy protects our capital program in lower price environments while also allowing us to capture more upside should prices continue to recover. We have already begun our 2020 program. To sum things up, 2018 was a great year for Oasis as our team executed incredibly well across multiple fronts.
Each of these steps continue to improve our size and scale, diversify our asset base, increase our top tier inventory while building upon our financial strength. As we look to 2019, the solid foundation our team has built through focus on returns and capital efficiency allows us to generate significant free cash flow while maintaining our strong asset base. With that, I'll hand the call back over to Drew for questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from Michael Hall of Heikkinen Energy Advisors. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning.
Good morning, Mike.
I was curious if you could provide just a little additional color on kind of the cadence of completion profile over the course of the year? I'm just trying to think through, obviously, with the rig count coming down, how that would kind of play into your normal seasonality of completions in the Williston. And I'm trying to square that also with the kind of flat 1Q 'nineteen versus 4Q 'eighteen. Yes, just trying to think through how the momentum from the back half of 'eighteen doesn't carry over a little bit into the Q1 'nineteen?
Yes. I think you're thinking about the right way. The cadence is like we normally see in the winter is going to be a little slower in the Q1. So for Williston 70 wells, you're going to have it's not evenly distributed. Like I said, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 well kind of range and then you can spread the rest of the wells pretty evenly across the last three quarters of the year.
Obviously, less completions in the Q1, but we had a number of wells that we brought online, 28 wells that Tommy talked about and a number that were late in the quarter. So some of that spilled over and it will just help us to volumes flat into the Q1 and then like we talked about we pick up activity again.
Okay. And as you kind of think through the oil rate trajectory, you pointed to 71% oil mix in the Q4 of 2019, which would be kind of down a little bit exit to exit. Are you growing out of the year? So like is there a low point in the year that comes prior to the Q4? Or are you declining through the course of the year on oil volumes?
And when would you think you would flatten that out if the latter is the case?
Yes. So when you we talked about the cuts and at the end of last year, Q4, you're more like 76%. And the thing that's going on in Williston, we brought on the plant in December. So quite a bit more processing capacity there at year end, but just for really a month and then you get that full treatment for the whole Q1 with that new plant on. So a bit of a dip.
If you just did the numbers we talked about and it went down pretty symmetrical over there, you'd be you go 73%, 72% at the midpoint of the year and then 71% at year end, which will imply as we talked about a bit of a drop off in oil volumes for Williston, but then you've got offset with increasing oil volumes in the Delaware. So exit to exit, all that combined a bit of a drop in oil. But then as we also talked about as we get into 2020, the decline profile looks different. So you go in 2019, the base decline is about 40% and that as you have less of the new wells, how does the production be dominated by new wells that moderates into 2020. And so that's we think that will allow us to keep our oil volumes flat to slightly growing in 2020 relative to the exit at 2019.
Okay. That's helpful granularity. And then I guess last on my end, just maybe bigger picture stepping back as you guys think about 2020, I mean kind of holistically I guess, how are you thinking about that in the context of getting back to potentially some growth or is free cash flow really still the emphasis? And what sort of activity do you need to have in the Delaware in 2020 to keep that acreage position whole?
Yes. From as far as the acreage hold, the close to the pace that we're drilling this year can do that for us. But what we expect, you saw from last year to this year, we stepped it up a bit in the Delaware. And then as you look at going into 2020, likely going to be going into more of a full development 2020 or close to that time. Again, the activity level is probably going to pick up again in the Delaware.
Overall, with respect to the free cash flow generation, our expectation is to continue to generate free cash flow. Certainly, in this $50 environment that we're in, we can continue to do that. And like I said, hold volumes flat. If you get into a higher price world, we have the opportunity to move activity up a bit. But again, it's going to be focused on continuing to generate free cash flow.
All right. Thanks very much.
And Mike will talk about that number. It's in the deck. You can look at the slide that shows that each of the higher price cases we generate more free cash flow and that's on Page 9 of the presentation.
Got it. Thanks. Very helpful, guys. Appreciate
it. Thanks, Michael.
The next question comes from Derrick Whitfield of Stifel.
Definitely want to applaud you guys on a strong and capital discipline outlook. With respect to the Williston, could you share with us your thoughts behind the name change from core and extended core to top tier? Is it simply the results in the former extended core approaching a level that's very similar to past core returns?
Yes. No, that's you're on the right track. If you people that are tuning in, if you look on Page 5 of the deck, you'll see that we've really just got what we're calling top tier and then additional upside acreage. And the way we had this classified over the past 3 or 4 years, we had this core and extended core concept. And the break between those 2, core was $40 breakeven or below, extended core was 45 dollars And so a $5 difference between those two classifications, before there was a lot of these higher intensity stimulations outside the core made sense.
Now as you look I don't know. Yes, I actually direct you to Page 1011, the map on Page 10, you can see that, well, there's a bunch of these enhanced completions really all over the basin and all over these areas that we're now calling Tier 1. And the results of the wells are pretty impressive. If you look on Page 11, you'll see for South Cottonwood, Painted Woods and for Montana, how the more recent completions, so their 2016 plus completions and our recent test in Painted Woods compared to all the completions done for all operators in the basin since 2017. And keep in mind, most of that activity is in the core.
So it really compares favorably. So we just think that the highly economic position has expanded over a bigger part of the basin and are going to this single tier concept, which we also think is really more in line with our peers.
Got it. That makes sense. And as a follow-up for you, Taylor, speaking to the peer wells you are referencing on Slide 11, how close are those designs to what you would consider best practice? And could you also speak to the potential timing for your planned enhanced completion test in both Montana and South Cottonwood?
So when you look at the peer wells, different operators are doing different things. Most of this activity since 2015 has been concentrated in the core. And for the most part, everybody has gone to high intensity completions. And they've got different variants of those completions, but a lot of that is slickwater. And then the exact sizes of those kind of change.
So pretty much everybody has made the shift at this point to high intensity completion, cemented liners and also doing plug and perf completion. So we think it's pretty representative of what we've been doing. So I think a good big comparator. In terms of drilling additional wells in Montana and South Cottonwood, We're evaluating that. So this year or sometime next year, you'll probably see that happen.
This it's not unlike what we did in Painted Woods. If you guys remember, we moved Painted Woods into an additional tier of inventory, moved it up based on 3rd party results we saw in the area. And then in 2017, we went in and drilled our own wells and have seen as good or better results than what we saw from competitors. So you can expect a similar approach for both South Cottonwood and Montana.
Very helpful. Thanks for your comments.
You bet.
The next question comes from David Deckelbaum of Cowen. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.
Hey, Dave.
Michael, congrats on consummating the deal with OMP on the CapEx agreement. I'm curious how you're thinking about that going in 2020 beyond. Should we think about this as sort of a perpetual structure that you could turn to until you get down to an ownership threshold before you would be, I guess, effectively losing control?
Thanks for that, David. This arrangement is clearly only for this year. However, what we have said in the past from an Oasis standpoint is that we want to spend free cash flow. We either want that to go back to the balance sheet at the parent level or go into our E and P capital spending program. And that's how we continue to think about it.
So midstream capital, for the most part, we do want to be spent at the MLP level. Whether it's through a drop down or it's a capital expenditure arrangement like we settled on now, that's kind of how we're thinking about it. So we'll see how this continues to work for both sides. We think it's a win win for both sides and will be great. And if that continues, obviously, we can think about that for 2020 beyond as well.
That's helpful. Appreciate that. And then just on the 2019 plan, and Taylor, you talked about the oil mix and gave some thoughts on to oil growth going into 2020. It sounds like you would be adding some activity in the Delaware. And you're sort of high level planning now in sort of a $50 world, does that come at the expense of Williston capital going beyond 2019?
Or I guess another way, at what point do you see the Delaware becoming sort of almost an even capital allocation to the Williston?
Yes. So, first question around activity levels and impact on the Williston. Yes, if we continue to be at a $50 world, the program is going to be fairly similar. One of the things to keep in mind that if we are in a $50 world, you're going to continue to see deflation. And so we think that's helpful in being able to execute on a similar program.
We also would expect that we'll continue to improve our efficiencies and cycle times and bring down costs, especially in the Delaware. I mean, we're early on that asset. We've been operating it now for a year, have made good strides, but we've got a path to continue to improve on that. And so as we pick up a little more activity in the Delaware, yes, there is going to be some offset in terms of activity if it's the same overall program. But there's also benefits of cost deflation and then just overall efficiencies in a lower price world that won't make that as big of impact as it might be otherwise.
Don't that's just directional, don't have specific numbers at this point, but that's how we would be thinking about it.
And David, just one thing to add to that is Taylor did mention earlier in his prepared remarks about the declines, the base declines are starting to flatten as well. So over time, you're not going to need as much capital in the Williston to continue to maintain production levels there. It's got a great inventory base as we've already talked about. And so, we think we can maintain that with less and less capital. It's going to generate a lot of free cash flow that will originally be reallocated towards the Delaware sum before it gets to free cash flow itself.
And then as far as how long is it going to be before you're spending even capital between the two bases? Well, that's a number of years out and just really for us to give a view on that at this point.
Thank you guys for all the color.
Thanks.
The next question comes from Ron Mills of Johnson Rice. Please go ahead.
Good morning guys. Hey, Rob.
Taking a
look at the Permian, especially you talked about some of the tests you're doing. Can you just provide a little bit more color on what 2019 looks like in terms of additional delineation of the Wolfcamp B along with the 3rd Bone Springs? And is this also the year when you potentially start testing the co development of all three of those zones like you did in the upper and lower A test?
Yes, Ron, it's Giff's point. We are going to do some individual interval test of the Wolfcamp C, the Wolfcamp B, Bone Springs 3, like you talked about. But then with the 8 well pilot that we talked about, drilling 8 wells in spacing, we will test a number of those different intervals together, all in a block to see how they interplay and what spacing will look like going forward. And that's important for us as we look to 2020 beyond and get into more of a development program going forward, we really want to understand how all those intervals interact in spacing and with the type
hand by the end of this year to as you look to formulate your 2020 plan? Or is that something that really transitions over the course of 2020 and you potentially move to more of
a full co development program? Yes.
It's going to be early results as we get into 2020. So we might be doing more pad work like that and then getting into really full development later in the year. But we'll continue to evaluate it as we go. It's important from an efficient resource recovery standpoint, but also important from cycle time and capital efficiency, just getting into pad operations is going to really help to continue to bring the cost down.
Okay, great. And then Michael for you on the free cash flow side is what are the what's the planned use of the free cash flow? My guess is initially to pay down debt. And I guess, if that's the case, do you kind of have a targeted longer term leverage ratio you'd like to achieve with that free cash flow? And how do you measure that versus the opportunity to do more or similar bolt ons to what you did in the latter part of last year in the Delaware?
Yes. Right now, the way we're thinking about it is we need to continue to increase our financial strength and we've always kind of talked about a 2 times debt to EBITDA level that we're shooting for in a normalized oil price. So if you call it a $50 or $55 oil price kind of on a normalized basis, that's what we're going to shoot for is under that 2 times. And so as we think about free cash flow generation, what we try to show where what that might be in a $50 world. Today, you're more like 55 dollars So what it might look like in $55.60 And in those scenarios, trying to be thoughtful around service costs maybe being a little bit different as well in those different environments.
So you'll notice those don't ratchet up perfectly with bolstering the balance sheet and paying down debt at this point.
Great. I'll listen to my listen. Thank you, guys.
Thanks, Rod.
The next question comes from Brad Heffern of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning everyone. I guess kind of on the same thing for the 2019 plan. Can you just talk about what led to this being the plan versus maybe a plan that would have kept oil flat or maybe even a free cash flow neutral plan? What are the benefits of this versus the other options?
Look, we had a big focus I'll start, I think Tommy has got something to add. But we had a big focus on minimum being free cash flow neutral. And as we continue to work the program, it became apparent that we could really keep our volumes flat and generate free cash flow. And we just thought it was a great use of proceeds. The capital efficient inventory in the basins really allow us to put a program like this out, which we think is tremendous.
Yes. I think, Kevin, being in a position to where we can keep volumes flat on an aggregate basis and generate free cash flow that then we can bank to weigh off financial alternatives versus operational alternatives is a great place to be. We've talked about it for a long time. And it just makes sure that you get the dollar going to the next optimal place. And as Michael mentioned, I think in the short term, it's all going back to the balance sheet and providing more firepower.
Okay. Thanks for that. And I guess, obviously, as you slow down, it lengthens the inventory life to some extent. Does that make you have a greater desire to potentially prune some of the longer dated inventory?
We'll see how the market is. It gives you flexibility for sure.
This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tommy Nusz for any closing remarks.
Thanks, Drew. To sum it up, Oasis continues to execute on our long term plan with our deep low cost In the Delaware, we continue to delineate our position and accretively grow our footprint while preparing for full field development. We have the team and the strategy in place to succeed, and we look forward to delivering for all of our stakeholders. Thanks again for joining our call.