Citing the current oil and natural gas commodity price environment and what makes the most sense on a capital investment basis, Whiting Petroleum Corp. on Wednesday doubled down on its exploration and production operations in the Bakken Shale of North Dakota. At the same time, it jettisoned all of the company’s oil and natural gas assets in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin of Colorado.

In North Dakota, Whiting said it is acquiring Williston Basin assets from a private company for $271 million. In a separate transaction announced on the same day, Whiting entered into an agreement to divest its DJ Basin assets — including associated midstream infrastructure — to a private entity for $187 million.

“These two transactions result in a significantly deeper drilling inventory in our...