If Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was ever up for sale, it almost certainly isn’t now.

Whiting said March 23 it would offer 35 million shares and two debt offerings that could be worth, collectively, more than $2.75 billion.

At the March 23 closing price of $38.39 per share, Whiting would raise gross proceeds of $1.34 billion. Whiting’s offering priced shares at $30 for net proceeds of $1 billion. The company has granted its underwriter a 30-day option to purchase an additional 5.25 million shares.

The company is also offering $1 billion in convertible senior notes due in 2020 and an additional $750 million in senior notes due by 2023.

For the past few weeks, media reports have quoted unnamed sources confirming and disavowing Whiting’s possible sale to a major oil company or large independent.

On March 12, Jim Volker, Whiting’s CEO, told Hart Energy that the sale “is a rumor and Whiting doesn’t comment on rumors.”

Whiting’s prospectus for the sale of 35 million shares, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, says that the company is “currently exploring asset sales of noncore properties. We are not however pursuing any significant strategic transaction at this time.”

In February, Whiting had said it planned to sell $1 billion in assets to increase liquidity following a $6 billion deal to buy Kodiak Oil & Gas.

“Overall, the news clearly indicates that an imminent sale of the company is unlikely,” David Tameron, senior analyst, Wells Fargo Securities, said in a March 24 report. “But we believe that WLL's scale [and asset quality] within one of the U.S.' pre-eminent crude plays means the company will remain on the short list of potential takeout targets.”

Tameron said that Whiting is making a sensible decision to tap the capital markets while the “window is still open.”

The capital raise would address concerns about a 2015 funding gap. Tameron estimated Whiting’s outspend at $1.1 billion. Other analysts said it was about $960 million.

Whiting said it will spend $2 billion in 2015, a 50% decrease from the combined capex of Whiting and Kodiak in 2014.

“Furthermore, the capital raise enables the company to remain flexible in monetizing midstream assets, which should lead to a higher transaction value than the alternative,” Tameron said.

John Freeman, analyst, Raymond James, said proceeds from the offerings will be used to pay down borrowings under the company's revolving credit facility, which currently stands at about $2.15 billion following the Kodiak deal.

Pearce Hammond, co-head of E&P research, Simmons & Co. International, said that the same announcement made three weeks ago would not have been a surprise since Whiting’s balance sheet has become more levered since the Kodiak deal added $750 million in debt.

But since rumors first emerged that Whiting was up for sale, the company has enjoyed strong equity performance relative to its group. For the year, Whiting is up 16% compared to Bakken peers such as Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR), up 2%, and Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: OAS), down 23%.

“We would not be surprised to see WLL's shares come under pressure with this equity offering,” Hammond said.

After closing at $38.39 on March 23, the stock was trading at about $30.82 by late morning, down about 22%.

Whiting has several areas it could divest, including midstream assets, or part of its Bakken/Three Forks position with production of 130 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d) and 812,000 net acres. In the Denver-Julesburg Basin, the company controls 132,000 net acres and it produced 10.2 Mboe/d in the fourth quarter of 2014.

In the Permian Basin, Whiting owns the North Ward Estes EOR asset, with low decline rates and 9.7 Mboe/d of fourth-quarter 2014 production.

Here is Whiting’s Williston Basin position, from a March 2 investor presentation: