| **NATURE OF OPERATIONS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION**                                           | 9 Months Ended                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
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| **Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]**          |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Text Block] | NATURE OF OPERATIONS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION PDC Energy is a domestic independent natural gas and crude oil company engaged in the exploration for and the acquisition, development, production and marketing of natural gas, NGLs and crude oil. As of September 30, 2012, we owned interests in approximately 7,200 gross wells located primarily in the Wattenberg Field, Appalachian Basin, northeast Colorado and the Piceance Basin. We are engaged in two business segments: (1) Oil and Gas Exploration and Production and (2) Gas Marketing. The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of PDC, our wholly-owned subsidiaries, and our proportionate share of PDCM and our 21 affiliated partnerships. Pursuant to the proportionate consolidation method, our accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include our pro rata share of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses of the entities which we proportionately consolidate. All material intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.  In our opinion, the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments (consisting of only 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 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 2011 Form 10-K. Our results of operations and cash flows for the three and nine months ended 2012 are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for the full year or any other future period.Certain reclassifications have been made to prior period financial statements to conform to the current year presentation, mainly related to discontinued operations. See Note 13, Divestitures and Discontinued Operations, for additional information regarding our discontinued operations. We also reclassified impairment and amortization charges recorded for unproved properties out of the statement of operations line item exploration expense and into impairment of natural gas and crude oil properties, and the accretion of asset retirement obligations out of the statement of operations line item production cost and into accretion of asset retirement obligations. The reclassifications had no impact on previously reported cash flows, net income, earnings per share or shareholders' equity. |

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The entire disclosure for organization, consolidation and basis of presentation of financial statements disclosure.
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