March 2012, June 2011 and August 2010 Contract Operations Acquisitions (Details) (USD $)	12 Months Ended									1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2012 Common units	Dec. 31, 2011 Common units	Dec. 31, 2010 Common units	Dec. 31, 2012 General partner units	Dec. 31, 2011 General partner units	Dec. 31, 2010 General partner units	Mar. 31, 2012 March 2012 Contract Operations Acquisition hp item	Dec. 31, 2012 March 2012 Contract Operations Acquisition	Jun. 30, 2011 June 2011 Contract Operations Acquisition hp item	Dec. 31, 2011 June 2011 Contract Operations Acquisition	Jun. 30, 2011 June 2011 Contract Operations Acquisition General partner units	Aug. 31, 2010 August 2010 Contract Operations Acquisition hp item	Aug. 31, 2010 August 2010 Contract Operations Acquisition Common units	Aug. 31, 2010 August 2010 Contract Operations Acquisition General partner units
March 2012, June 2011 and August 2010 Contract Operations Acquisitions
Number of customers with service agreements										39		34			43
Number of compressor units used to provide compression services										406		407			580
Horsepower of compressor units used to provide compression services										188,000		289,000			255,000
Percentage of available horsepower of the combined U.S. contract operations business of Exterran Holdings and entity from service agreements acquired										5.00%		8.00%			6.00%
Compressor units acquired										139		207
Horsepower of compressor units acquired										75,000		98,000
Capacity of natural gas processing plant acquired (MMcf per day)										10		8
Net book value of fleet assets acquired										$ 149,500,000		$ 191,400,000			$ 121,800,000
Accumulated depreciation of fleet assets acquired										67,000,000		85,500,000			53,600,000
Total consideration, excluding transaction costs										182,800,000		223,000,000			214,000,000
Long-term debt assumed in contract operations acquisitions	105,350,000	159,434,000								105,400,000		159,400,000
Cash paid	77,415,000	62,217,000								77,400,000		62,200,000
Units issued in conjunction with acquisition (in units)								50,973						51,000		8,200,000	167,000
Finite life intangible assets associated with customer relationships										5,000,000		6,400,000			5,900,000
Capital distributions	87,866,000	70,636,000	50,490,000	82,073,000	58,319,000	37,140,000	5,793,000	3,980,000	2,357,000		28,200,000		24,700,000
Unaudited pro forma financial information
Revenue	395,427,000	372,736,000	322,333,000
Net income (loss)	12,521,000	16,715,000	(5,006,000)
Basic earnings (loss) per common unit (in dollar per unit)	$ 0.19	$ 0.36	$ (0.20)
Diluted earnings (loss) per common unit (in dollar per unit)	$ 0.19	$ 0.36	$ (0.20)
Basic earnings (loss) per subordinated unit (in dollars per unit)		$ 0.36	$ (0.20)
Diluted earnings (loss) per subordinated unit (in dollars per unit)		$ 0.36	$ (0.20)
Additional pro forma reduction of net income (loss) allocable to the entity's limited partners		$ 200,000	$ 400,000