Gulfport Energy Corp. (Nasdaq: GPOR) has begun an underwritten public offering of 9,000,000 shares of its common stock subject to market and other conditions.

Gulfport, headquartered in Oklahoma City, intends to use the net proceeds from this offering together with the net proceeds from a possible private placement of high yield notes to fund its pending acquisition of oil and gas assets in the Utica Shale in Ohio and for general corporate purposes, which may include expenditures associated with Gulfport's 2013 drilling programs.

The underwriters will have an option to ...