NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL) - Get Report are down 6.85% to $37.26 in morning trading today with the oil and gas producer attracting interest from Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) - Get Report and Continental Resources (CLR) - Get Report as it explores a sale of the entire company, sources told Bloomberg.

Hess Corp. (HES) - Get Report and Statoil ASA (STO) are also looking at the company, the sources said.

Whiting has reportedly set up a data room for potential buyers to evaluate the company's financial information and asked them to submit bids this week, sources added.

A potential deal for Whiting, the largest producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation, may be the first in an anticipated pickup of merger activity for U.S. energy producers as they struggle with heavy debt and an oil selloff, Bloomberg noted.

Last week, Whiting reportedly put Texas acreage and pipeline assets up for sale as an alternative to a sale of the full company, other sources told Reuters.

Some hoped that this move could get rid of assets that are not central to the core shale operations, generating cash for the company's balance sheet, which has more than $3 billion in debt after December's buyout of its rival Kodiak Oil & Gas.

JPMorgan has reportedly sought potential buyers of the full company in recent days, the sources said. Several potential acquirers' interest in buying all of Whiting was weak because of concerns about its $5.63 billion debt load, the sources added.

"This is not the way you run a deal process," one major Whiting shareholder told Reuters, upset that the company would even entertain the idea of any sale in this environment.

Oil continues to fall today, putting more pressure on the stock. West Texas Intermediate was down 3.46% to $43.29 at 10:36 a.m. in New York. Brent was lower 3.4% to $53.14.

Whiting Petroleum is Denver-based independent oil and gas company. The company is engaged in exploration, development, acquisition and production activities in the Rocky Mountains and Permian Basin regions of the U.S.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates WHITING PETROLEUM CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate WHITING PETROLEUM CORP (WLL) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed, some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. Among the primary strengths of the company is its expanding profit margins over time. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, feeble growth in the company's earnings per share and deteriorating net income."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Despite the weak revenue results, WLL has outperformed against the industry average of 19.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 4.3%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The gross profit margin for WHITING PETROLEUM CORP is currently very high, coming in at 71.37%. Regardless of WLL's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, WLL's net profit margin of -52.00% significantly underperformed when compared to the industry average.
• Net operating cash flow has declined marginally to $466.00 million or 5.01% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite a decrease in cash flow of 5.01%, WHITING PETROLEUM CORP is in line with the industry average cash flow growth rate of -11.94%.
• WHITING PETROLEUM CORP has experienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share have declined over the last two years. We anticipate that this should continue in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, WHITING PETROLEUM CORP reported lower earnings of $0.81 versus $3.07 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 177.8% in earnings (-$0.63 versus $0.81).
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 496.8% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from -$59.27 million to -$353.68 million.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: WLL Ratings Report