Acquisitions and Divestitures - Business Acquisition Pro Forma Information Incremental Items (Details) - USD ($)		3 Months Ended								7 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
		Dec. 31, 2016	Sep. 30, 2016	Jun. 30, 2016	Mar. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015	Sep. 30, 2015	Jun. 30, 2015	Mar. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014	Dec. 31, 2016	Dec. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Revenues		$ 115,213,000	$ 107,403,000	$ 99,655,000	$ 77,715,000	$ 104,064,000	$ 126,228,000	$ 149,066,000	$ 127,907,000		$ 399,986,000	$ 507,265,000	$ 948,708,000
DD&A											211,609,000	394,071,000	511,102,000
G&A											59,740,000	73,110,000	86,999,000
Interest expense											92,791,000	104,592,000	86,922,000
Income tax expense											$ (43,376,000)	(202,984,000)	(4,459,000)
Woodside Properties
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Revenues										$ 28,400,000		24,400,000
Direct operating expenses										5,500,000		9,500,000
DD&A										11,000,000		14,400,000
Income tax expense										$ 4,200,000		$ 0
Woodside Properties | Pro Forma
Business Acquisition [Line Items]
Revenues	[1],[2]												22,887,000
Direct operating expenses	[1],[2]												4,417,000
DD&A	[2],[3]												8,385,000
G&A	[2],[4]												300,000
Interest expense	[2],[5]												330,000
Capitalized interest	[2],[6]												(19,000)
Income tax expense	[2],[7]												$ 3,316,000

[1] Revenues and direct operating expenses for the Woodside Properties were derived from the historical financial records of Woodside.

[2] The adjustments for 2014 are for the period from January 1, 2014 to May 20, 2014.

[3] DD&A was estimated using the full-cost method and determined as the incremental DD&A expense due to adding the Woodside Properties’ costs, reserves and production into our full cost pool in order to compute such amounts. The purchase price allocated to unevaluated properties for oil and natural gas interests was excluded from the DD&A expense estimation. ARO was estimated by W&T management.

[4] Estimated insurance costs related to the Woodside Properties.

[5] The acquisition was assumed to be funded entirely with borrowed funds. Interest expense was computed using assumed borrowings of $55.0 million, which equates to the cash component of the acquisition purchase price, and an interest rate of 1.8%, which equates to the rates applied to incremental borrowings on the revolving bank credit facility.

[6] The change to capitalized interest was computed for the addition to the pool of unevaluated properties and the capitalization interest rate was adjusted for the assumed borrowings. The negative amount represents a decrease to net expenses.

[7] Income tax expense was computed using the 35% federal statutory rate.