Equity - Summary of Status of Non-Vested Restricted Shares (Parenthetical) (Detail)	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015 shares
Equity [Abstract]
Minimum number of performance vested shares	0
Target level of performance	50.00%

Share based compensation arrangement by share based payment award target level of performance.

No definition available.

Name:	ne_ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardTargetLevelOfPerformance
Namespace Prefix:	ne_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration