Document And Entity Information - shares	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2018	Apr. 20, 2018
Document Information [Line Items]
Document Type	10-Q/A
Amendment Flag	true
Document Period End Date	Mar. 31, 2018
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2018
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q1
Trading Symbol	unt
Entity Registrant Name	UNIT CORP
Entity Central Index Key	0000798949
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		54,046,361
Amendment Description	In the course of preparing our consolidated financial statements for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, we identified a misstatement as of March 31, 2018, of approximately $44.9 million within the operating activities and the investing activities sections of the statement of cash flows. The misstatement did not have any impact on revenues, net income, working capital, total assets, or shareholders' equity. Our financial statements have been restated to correctly reflect the noncash activity within our condensed consolidated statements of cash flows. We have restated Note 1, Basis of Preparation and Presentation to reflect the impacts of this correction to the statement of cash flows.