Business Segments - Narrative (Details) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015 USD ($) reporting_unit business_segment	Dec. 31, 2014 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 USD ($)
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Number of business segments \| business_segment	4
Research and product development costs \| $	$ 140	$ 128	$ 83
Percent of total research and development costs incurred by DPS (in hundredths)	52.00%	58.00%	44.00%
OneSubsea
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Ownership percentage	60.00%
Minority ownership percentage (in hundredths)	40.00%
Subsea
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Number of reporting units within the segment \| reporting_unit	2

Refers to number of reporting units within the segment.

No definition available.

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- Definition

The percent of total research and product development costs that can be attributed to an individual business segment.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

The percentage of ownership of common stock or equity participation in the investee accounted for under the equity method of accounting.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6382943&loc=d3e33918-111571

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- Definition

The equity interest of noncontrolling shareholders, partners or other equity holders in consolidated entity.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

Number of segments reported by the entity. A reportable segment is a component of an entity for which there is an accounting requirement to report separate financial information on that component in the entity's financial statements.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Definition

The aggregate costs incurred (1) in a planned search or critical investigation aimed at discovery of new knowledge with the hope that such knowledge will be useful in developing a new product or service, a new process or technique, or in bringing about a significant improvement to an existing product or process; or (2) to translate research findings or other knowledge into a plan or design for a new product or process or for a significant improvement to an existing product or process whether intended for sale or the entity's use, during the reporting period charged to research and development projects, including the costs of developing computer software up to the point in time of achieving technological feasibility, and costs allocated in accounting for a business combination to in-process projects deemed to have no alternative future use.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 730
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6420194&loc=d3e21568-108373

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 985
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6501960&loc=d3e128462-111756

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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