| **NATURE OF OPERATIONS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION**                                           | 3 Months Ended                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
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| **NATURE OF OPERATIONS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION [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 March 31, 2012, we owned an interest in approximately 6,500 gross wells located primarily in the Appalachian Basin, the Wattenberg Field, 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 PDC Mountaineer, LLC ("PDCM") and 21 of our affiliated partnerships. Pursuant to the proportionate consolidation method, our accompanying 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 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. The results of operations and the cash flows for the three 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.  We reclassified the derivatives fair value hierarchy level of our PEPL and CIG-based natural gas fixed-price swaps, crude oil fixed-price swaps, basis swaps and natural gas physical purchases from Level 3 to Level 2.  This reclassification 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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