Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) is one of the noted shale oil focused companies that have been standing on the wrong side of the oil price slide. The street has been speculating for some time about the next step of the company to ease its considerable debt, whether it would be an asset sale or it would an outright sale of the company itself. The rumor of JP Morgan shopping the company for various investors was doing the rounds with the name of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) floating too as an interested party but soon it became clear that all the potential investors are scared by the huge debt burden.

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Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) had tried to sell itself two years back but failed. Then it decided to switch to the other side and acquire companies. The result was WLL buying Bakken shale rival Kodiak Oil & Gas, paying $3.8 billion and adding $2 billion to its debt. The whole move was destroyed by the crash in oil prices and now the company has informed that it would go for asset sale.

The stock of Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) has been upgraded by various analysts in the last few days, including a reaffirmation of the “buy” rating by KeyBanc, an “overweight” rating by JP Morgan Chase & co., an “equal weight” rating by Barclays and an upgrade to “buy” from “neutral” by Guggenheim.

The technical picture is very interesting as the entire fall from the top of $92 to $24 was divided in two equal parts and that brings forth the possibility of a rally to $60-$65 in the coming weeks. The short term contraction suggests that a break above $40 may trigger a rally. The volume pattern implies possible accumulation and that also supports the bullish speculation. Investors may wait for a break above $40 to get into.