Consolidated Balance Sheets (Parenthetical) (USD $)	Sep. 30, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010
HollyFrontier stockholders' equity:
Preferred stock, par value	$ 1	$ 1
Preferred stock, shares authorized	5,000,000	5,000,000
Preferred stock, shares issued	0	0
Common stock, par value	$ 0.01	$ 0.01
Common stock, shares authorized	320,000,000	320,000,000
Common stock, shares issued	255,962,866	152,692,864
Treasury stock, shares	46,728,003	46,163,488