| **Commitments and Contingencies Commitments and Contingencies (Details)**                                                                       | 1 Months Ended | 3 Months Ended | 9 Months Ended |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
||
| **Other Commitments [Line Items]**                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| Additional expense due to unutilized firm transportation and shortfalls in delivering or transporting minimum volumes under certain commitments |           | $ 12,000,000   | $ 6,000,000    | $ 39,000,000 | $ 15,000,000 |
| Supplemental environmental projects                                                                                                             | $ 178,780      |           |           |   |   |
| Reduced penalty                                                                                                                                 | $ 44,695       |           |           |   |   |
| CONSOL Carried Cost Obligation [Member]                                                                                                         |           |           |           |   |   |
| **Other Commitments [Line Items]**                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| Equity method investment, ownership percentage                                                                                                  |           | 50.00%         |           | 50.00% |   |
| Maximum amount to be paid each calendar year for funding of future drilling and completion costs                                                |           |           |           | $ 400,000,000 |   |
| Funding of joint venture's future drilling and completion costs                                                                                 |           |           |           | $ 1,600,000,000 |   |
| Natural gas price agreed upon benchmark, average                                                                                                |           |           |           | 4.00 |   |
| Consent Decree [Member]                                                                                                                         |           |           |           |   |   |
| **Other Commitments [Line Items]**                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| Civil penalty                                                                                                                                   |           |           |           | $ 4,950,000 |   |
| Mitigation projects                                                                                                                             |           |           |           | 4,500,000 |   |
| Supplemental environmental projects                                                                                                             |           |           |           | $ 4,000,000 |   |
| Natural Gas [Member]                                                                                                                            |           |           |           |   |   |
| **Other Commitments [Line Items]**                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| Oil and Gas Delivery Commitments and Contracts, Available Amounts to be Received | Tcf                                                          |           | 6              |           | 6 |   |
| Crude Oil [Member]                                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| **Other Commitments [Line Items]**                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| Oil and Gas Delivery Commitments and Contracts, Available Amounts to be Received | MMBbls                                                       |           | 271            |           | 271 |   |
| Marcellus Shale [Member] | Natural Gas [Member]                                                                                                 |           |           |           |   |   |
| **Other Commitments [Line Items]**                                                                                                              |           |           |           |   |   |
| Oil and Gas Delivery Commitments and Contracts, Available Amounts to be Received | Bcf                                                          |           | 493            |           | 493 |   |

| X                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Civil penalty
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_Civilpenalty**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**credit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Amount agreed upon to provide funding of the entity's joint venture future drilling and completion costs.
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_FundingOfJointVenturesFutureDrillingAndCompletionCosts**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**credit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
The maximum amount of funding to be provided by the entity for future drilling and completion cost each calendar year.
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_MaximumAmountToBePaidEachCalendarYearForFundingOfFutureDrillingAndCompletionCosts**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**debit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Mitigation projects
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_Mitigationprojects**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**credit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Average natural gas price agreed upon benchmark for funding of future drilling and completion costs (in MMBtu's). If the average price of gas drops below benchmark for 3 consecutive months, capital carry will to be suspended until the average price of gas rises above the benchmark for a 3 consecutive month period.
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_NaturalGasPriceAgreedUponBenchmarkAverage**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:decimalItemType**Balance Type:**na**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Supplemental environmental projects
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_Supplementalenvironmentalprojects**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**credit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Unutilized Firm Transportation And Shortfalls Of Delivering Commitments
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**nbl_UnutilizedFirmTransportationAndShortfallsOfDeliveringCommitments**Namespace Prefix:**nbl_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**debit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - 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=66011266&loc=d3e33918-111571
+ Details**Name:**us-gaap_EquityMethodInvestmentOwnershipPercentage**Namespace Prefix:**us-gaap_**Data Type:**num:percentItemType**Balance Type:**na**Period Type:**instant |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Amount of judgment or settlement awarded to (against) the entity in respect of litigation.
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**us-gaap_LitigationSettlementAmount**Namespace Prefix:**us-gaap_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**credit**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Total amount of product committed to be supplied under existing contracts or agreements.
+ References
Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher SEC -Name Regulation S-K (SK) -Number 229 -Section 1207 -Paragraph (a) -Subparagraph (2)
+ Details**Name:**us-gaap_OilAndGasDeliveryCommitmentsAndContractsRemainingContractualVolume**Namespace Prefix:**us-gaap_**Data Type:**num:volumeItemType**Balance Type:**na**Period Type:**instant |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - 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**Name:**us-gaap_OtherCommitmentsLineItems**Namespace Prefix:**us-gaap_**Data Type:**xbrli:stringItemType**Balance Type:**na**Period Type:**duration |
| X                                                                                                                                                          |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Details**Name:**us-gaap_OtherCommitmentsAxis=nbl_CONSOLCarriedCostObligationMember**Namespace Prefix:****Data Type:**na**Balance Type:****Period Type:** |
| X                                                                                                                                            |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Details**Name:**us-gaap_OtherCommitmentsAxis=nbl_ConsentDecreeMember**Namespace Prefix:****Data Type:**na**Balance Type:****Period Type:** |
| X                                                                                                                                                                             |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Details**Name:**us-gaap_OilAndGasDeliveryCommitmentsAndContractsAxis=us-gaap_NaturalGasReservesMember**Namespace Prefix:****Data Type:**na**Balance Type:****Period Type:** |
| X                                                                                                                                                                   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Details**Name:**us-gaap_OilAndGasDeliveryCommitmentsAndContractsAxis=us-gaap_CrudeOilMember**Namespace Prefix:****Data Type:**na**Balance Type:****Period Type:** |
| X                                                                                                                                                  |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Details**Name:**us-gaap_StatementGeographicalAxis=nbl_MarcellusShaleMember**Namespace Prefix:****Data Type:**na**Balance Type:****Period Type:** |