Long Term Debt (Details Textuals) (USD $)	0 Months Ended	1 Months Ended			3 Months Ended			9 Months Ended					9 Months Ended			9 Months Ended		1 Months Ended			3 Months Ended	1 Months Ended
	Nov. 06, 2012	Jul. 31, 2012	Apr. 30, 2012	Mar. 31, 2010	Sep. 30, 2012	Jun. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2011	Sep. 14, 2012	Mar. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2012 Pre-tax [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Post-tax [Member]	Jun. 30, 2012 Equipment [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Minimum [Member]	Sep. 30, 2012 Maximum [Member]	Mar. 31, 2011 7.5% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2013 [Member] Extinguishment One [Member]	Apr. 30, 2011 7.5% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2013 [Member] Extinguishment Two [Member]	Mar. 31, 2011 7.5% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2015 [Member] Extinguishment One [Member]	Mar. 21, 2011 7.5% Senior Subordinated Notes due 2015 [Member] Extinguishment Two [Member]	Feb. 28, 2011 6 3/8% Senior Subordinated Notes Due 2021 [Member]
$1.6 Billion Revolving Credit Facility [Abstract]
Initiation date of Bank Credit Facility				Mar. 31, 2010
Borrowing Base of Denbury credit facility				$ 1,600,000,000						$ 1,600,000,000
Maturity date of Denbury Credit Facility					May 31, 2016
Commitment fee on Bank Credit Facility								We incur a commitment fee on the unused portion of the Bank Credit Facility of either 0.375% or 0.5%, based on the ratio of outstanding borrowings under the Bank Credit Facility to the borrowing base.
Weighted average interest rate on Bank Credit Facility								2.00%
Line of Credit Facility, Unused Capacity, Commitment Fee Percentage																0.375%	0.50%
Description of amendment to Bank Credit Facility	In November 2012, we entered into the Ninth Amendment to the Bank Credit Agreement (the “Ninth Amendment”) pursuant to which certain provisions of the Bank Credit Agreement were amended to, among other things (i) permit the sale of the Bakken area assets (without any change in our borrowing base), and (ii) increase the amount of distributions Denbury may make to its equity holders, including the repurchase of our common stock and/or the making of cash dividends with respect thereto, from an aggregate amount of $500 million up to an aggregate amount of $1.2 billion during the term of the Bank Credit Agreement, subject, in the case of such distributions, to certain existing restrictions and conditions, including the absence of any default or borrowing base deficiency, availability of no less than 25% of the borrowing base and compliance with all financial covenants, in each case on a pro forma basis after giving effect to any such distribution. The Ninth Amendment also provided a limited waiver of any oil hedging noncompliance that may occur as a result of the Pending Exchange Transaction during the period commencing on the closing date of the Pending Exchange Transaction and continuing through and including December 31, 2013.	In July 2012, we entered into the Eighth Amendment to the Bank Credit Agreement (the “Eighth Amendment”) permitting the Company to incur capital lease obligations in an aggregate amount outstanding at any time not to exceed $300 million. The Bank Credit Agreement permits the Company to incur up to $40 million of other unsecured debt, and prior to the effectiveness of the Eighth Amendment capital leases would have been captured in this permitted debt basket. The Bank Credit Agreement was amended concurrent with the Company’s change in classification of equipment leases from operating to capital in the second quarter of 2012 (see Capital Leases below), and the Eighth Amendment included the granting by the lenders of a waiver of any applicable violations of the provisions of the Bank Credit Agreement resulting from such correction and the Company’s recording of its equipment leases as debt.	Under the Seventh Amendment, we increased the amount of additional permitted subordinated debt (other than refinancing debt) from $300.0 million to $650.0 million.
Permissable amount of common stock repurchases	1,200,000,000				500,000,000			500,000,000
Permissable amount of additional subordinated debt			650,000,000								300,000,000
Permissable amount of capital lease obligations		300,000,000
Permissable amount of other unsecured debt		40,000,000
Long Term Debt (Textuals) [Abstract]
Interest in guarantor subsidiaries					100.00%			100.00%
Face Value of Notes Issued																						400,000,000
Selling Price Of Debt Instrument																						100.00%
Proceeds from issuance of subordinated long term debt, net of commissions and fees																						393,000,000
Principal amount of notes for which cash tender offers commenced																						400,000,000
Capital Lease Obligations [Abstract]
Other property and equipment related to capital lease adjustment					402,908,000			402,908,000				157,674,000			155,600,000
Capital Lease Obligations Noncurrent															138,900,000
Capital Lease Obligations, Current															25,100,000
Immaterial Error Correction						During the second quarter of 2012, we corrected the accounting for our equipment leases from operating leases to capital leases to comply with ASC Topic 840, Leases as a result of the consideration of nonperformance-related default covenants included in our equipment lease agreements. We recorded a cumulative adjustment to establish the capital lease assets as “Other property and equipment” ($155.6 million) and the capital lease obligations as “Long-term debt” ($138.9 million) and “Current maturities of long-term debt” ($25.1 million) on the accompanying Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. We also recognized the cumulative pre-tax impact of $8.4 million ($5.2 million after tax) as “Other expenses” on the accompanying Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2012. Because the amounts involved were not material to the Company’s financial statements in any individual prior period, and the cumulative impact is not material to the estimated results of operations for the year ending December 31, 2012, we recorded the cumulative effect of correcting these items during the second quarter of 2012.
Reclassification of leases													8,400,000	5,200,000
Extinguishment of Debt [Line Items]
Amount of debt repaid or repurchased																		169,600,000	55,400,000	220,900,000	79,100,000
Percentage of par at which debt was repurchased																		100.625%	100.00%	104.125%	103.75%
Loss on early extinguishment of debt					$ 0		$ 0	$ 0	$ 16,131,000