Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)	3 Months Ended
Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)	Mar. 31, 2020
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Error Corrections and Prior Period Adjustments Restatement [Line Items]	Recently Adopted Accounting Standards. In March 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted final rules that amend the financial disclosure requirements for subsidiary issuers and guarantors of registered debt securities in Rule 3-10 of Regulation S-X. The amended rules, which can be found under new Rule 13-01 of Regulation S-X, narrow the circumstances that require separate financial statements of subsidiary issuers and guarantors and streamline the alternative disclosures required in lieu of those statements. The amended rules allow the registrants, among other things, to disclose summarized financial information of the issuer and guarantors on a combined basis and to present only the most recently completed fiscal year and subsequent year-to-date interim period. The rule allows the parent company to omit summarized financial information if it is not material, or if assets, liabilities, and results of operations of the combined issuers and guarantors of the security are not materially different than the amounts in the parent company’s consolidated financial statements. The rule is effective in the first quarter of 2021, but earlier compliance is permitted. We early adopted the rule in the first quarter of 2020 and chose to omit the summarized financial information as the combined financial statements of the issuer and guarantors were not materially different than the amounts in our consolidated financial statements.
Consolidation, Policy	The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of PDC and our wholly-owned subsidiaries. All material intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation
Basis of Accounting, Policy	In our opinion, the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments, consisting of normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair statement of our financial statements for interim periods in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP") and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X of the SEC. Accordingly, pursuant to such rules and regulations, certain notes and other financial information included in audited financial statements have been condensed or omitted. The December 31, 2019 condensed consolidated balance sheet data was derived from audited statements, but does not include all disclosures required by U.S. GAAP. The information presented in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in our 2019 Form 10-K. Our results of operations and cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2020 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other future period
Earnings Per Share, Policy	Basic earnings per share is computed by dividing net earnings by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted earnings per share is similarly computed, except that the denominator includes the effect, using the treasury stock method, of unvested equity-based employee awards, convertible notes and shares held pursuant to our non-employee director deferred compensation plan, if including such potential shares of common stock is dilutive.