Summarized Quarterly Financial Data (Parenthetical) (Detail) (USD $)	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended			12 Months Ended				3 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Nov. 30, 2010	Dec. 31, 2011	Jun. 30, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Apr. 30, 2011	Nov. 19, 2010	Sep. 30, 2011 Natural Gas Storage	Dec. 31, 2011 Natural Gas Storage
Quarterly Financial Information [Line Items]
Gain (loss) on sale of our equity interest			$ 34,100,000		$ 34,727,000
Dividend income		600,000
Goodwill impairment expense					169,560,000				169,600,000	169,560,000
Compensation expense				$ 21,100,000		$ 21,100,000
Aggregate number of Buckeye's LP Units issued to BGH's unitholders		19,951,498			19,951,498		5,520,000	19,951,498
Buckeye's LP Units outstanding		85,968,423		71,436,099	85,968,423	71,436,099		51,556,716
Stock split ratio	0.705				0.705