Organization and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Business and Principles of Consolidation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Pioneer Drilling Company and our wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In the opinion of our management, all adjustments (consisting of normal, recurring accruals) necessary for a fair presentation have been included. In preparing the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements, we make various estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts of assets and liabilities we report as of the dates of the balance sheets and income and expenses we report for the periods shown in the income statements and statements of cash flows. Our actual results could differ significantly from those estimates. Material estimates that are particularly susceptible to significant changes in the near term relate to our recognition of revenues and costs for turnkey contracts, our estimate of the allowance for doubtful accounts, our estimate of the liability relating to the self-insurance portion of our health and workers’ compensation insurance, our estimate of asset impairments, our estimate of deferred taxes, our estimate of compensation related accruals and our determination of depreciation and amortization expense