Debt and Financing Costs (Details Textual) (USD $)	1 Months Ended		3 Months Ended														3 Months Ended		3 Months Ended
	May 31, 2013	Aug. 31, 2012	Mar. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Mar. 31, 2012 Maturing on 2012 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Maturing 2017 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Maturing 2022 [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Maturing 2043 [Member]	Aug. 31, 2016 Unsecured Committed Bank Credit Facilities [Member]	May 31, 2013 Unsecured Committed Bank Credit Facilities [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Unsecured Committed Bank Credit Facilities [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Unsecured Committed Bank Credit Facilities in Australia [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 Argentina overdraft lines of credit [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Argentina and Canada overdraft lines of credit [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Unsecured Committed Bank Credit Facilities in U.S. [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Unsecured Committed Bank Credit Facilities in Canada [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Five Year Facility [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Commercial Paper Program Maximum Amount [Member]	Mar. 31, 2012 Notes Payable, Other Payables [Member]
Short-term Debt [Line Items]
Commercial paper program																		$ 2,950,000,000
Period For Borrowing Funds																			270 days
Line of Credit Facility [Line Items]
Unsecured credit facility available to Company									1,000,000,000	2,300,000,000	3,300,000,000
Revolving bank facility											1,500,000,000	200,000,000			450,000,000	150,000,000
Line of Credit Facility, Remaining Borrowing Capacity			2,600,000,000
New unsecured committed revolving banking facility																	1,000,000,000
Company issued principal amount of senior unsecured notes						400,000,000	1,100,000,000	1,500,000,000
Principal amount of senior unsecured, percentage					6.25%	1.75%	3.25%	4.75%
Current debt			429,000,000	431,000,000	400,000,000								31,000,000	29,000,000
Annual Principal Payment					400,000,000
Debt And Financing Costs (Textual) [Abstract]
Maturing date of credit facilities	May 31, 2013	Aug. 31, 2016
Commercial paper, carrying amount			$ 659,000,000	$ 0
Line of Credit Facility, Interest Rate Description			As of March 31, 2012, the Company had unsecured committed revolving syndicated bank credit facilities totaling $3.3 billion, of which $2.3 billion matures in May 2013 and $1.0 billion matures in August 2016. The facilities consist of a $1.5 billion facility, a $1.0 billion facility and a $450 million facility in the U.S., a $200 million facility in Australia and a $150 million facility in Canada. As of March 31, 2012, available borrowing capacity under the Company’s credit facilities was $2.6 billion. The U.S. credit facilities are used to support Apache’s commercial paper program.