Property, Plant and Equipment - Additional Information (Detail)	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Feb. 29, 2016 USD ($) Drilling_Rig	Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($) Rigs Drilling_Rig Drillship	Dec. 31, 2014 USD ($) Rigs Drillship	Dec. 31, 2013 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2014 Rigs
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Capitalized interest related to the construction and upgrade of qualifying assets		$ 36,000,000	$ 80,000,000	$ 92,000,000
Net book value of equipment		15,477,000,000	15,611,000,000
Construction in process		494,000,000	578,000,000
Gain on sale of rings			9,000,000
Proceeds from sale			17,000,000
After tax gain on sale of rings			3,000,000
Asset impairment loss, before tax and noncontrolling interests				0
Offshore Drilling Equipment Two [Member] | Rigs [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Construction in process		$ 270,000,000	$ 439,000,000
Number of equipments in construction | Rigs		1	2
Jack-ups [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Net book value of equipment		$ 14,000,000
Number of equipment transferred to other assets | Drilling_Rig		5
Jack-ups [Member] | Scenario, Forecast [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Number of drilling rigs sold | Drilling_Rig	1
Proceed from sale of equipment	$ 8,000,000
Drilling Rigs [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Number of drilling rigs sold | Drilling_Rig		9
Gain on sale of rings		$ 5,000,000
Diamond Offshore [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Asset impairment loss, before tax and noncontrolling interests		861,000,000
Asset impairment loss, net of tax and noncontrolling interests		$ 341,000,000
Number of rigs currently cold stacked | Rigs		6
Carrying value of the rigs		$ 175,000,000	$ 9,000,000
Number of property plant and equipment scrapped | Rigs			2		6
Diamond Offshore [Member] | Offshore Drilling Equipment One [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Net book value of equipment		$ 655,000,000	$ 2,700,000,000
Construction in process			$ 225,000,000	$ 1,300,000,000
Diamond Offshore [Member] | Offshore Drilling Equipment One [Member] | Ultra-deepwater Drillships [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Number of equipments delivered | Drillship		1	3
Diamond Offshore [Member] | Offshore Drilling Equipment One [Member] | Ultra Deep Water Floater Rig [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Number of equipments delivered | Drillship			2
Diamond Offshore [Member] | Mid-Water Rigs [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Asset impairment loss, before tax and noncontrolling interests			$ 109,000,000
Asset impairment loss, net of tax and noncontrolling interests			$ 55,000,000
Number of property plant and equipment scrapped | Rigs		5
Diamond Offshore [Member] | Drilling Rigs [Member]
Property, Plant and Equipment [Line Items]
Number rigs used for evaluated for impairment | Drilling_Rig		25
Number of equipments impaired | Rigs		17