ORGANIZATION AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Details) (USD $)	0 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		6 Months Ended								6 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	6 Months Ended	0 Months Ended	6 Months Ended						1 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2013	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2013 item	Dec. 31, 2012	Jun. 30, 2013	Jun. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2013 Stock options	Jun. 30, 2013 Stock options	Dec. 31, 2012 Stock options	Dec. 31, 2013 AGR Lawsuit	Dec. 31, 2013 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Investigations	Oct. 31, 2012 AGR Peak Well Management Ltd AGR Lawsuit	Dec. 31, 2013 AGR Peak Well Management Ltd AGR Lawsuit	Dec. 31, 2012 SCS	Dec. 31, 2013 SCS	Jun. 30, 2013 Dana	Dec. 31, 2013 Tullow Guinea Ltd	Dec. 31, 2013 Guinea concession	Dec. 30, 2012 Guinea concession	Dec. 31, 2013 Guinea concession Dana	Feb. 29, 2012 Sabu-1 well m item
Nature of business
Number of wholly-owned subsidiaries				3
Status of our Business
Other commitments		$ 0		$ 0
Cash	54,639,000	18,017,000	54,639,000	18,017,000	54,639,000	26,468,000	37,148,000
Available-for-sale securities		15,207,000		15,207,000		15,383,000
Restricted cash held in escrow in connection with our drilling contract with AGR		19,195,000		19,195,000		19,190,000
Liabilities		25,590,000		25,590,000		22,694,000
Current liabilities											20,200,000
Noncurrent liabilities		68,000		68,000		92,000
Ownership interest sold (as a percent)															40.00%
Threshold gross expenditure cap for well to be paid by the entity	100,000,000
Estimated total cost of well	115,000,000
Ownership interest (as a percent)																	23.00%	40.00%	37.00%	77.00%	23.00%
Number of exploratory wells drilled																						1
Planned total depth of drilled well reached																						3,600
Additional amount sought on a gross basis													9,500,000	9,500,000
Additional amount sought based ownership interest held													7,300,000	7,300,000
Legal and other professional fees												3,000,000
Gross expenditure for an ultra-deepwater exploration well to be paid by Tullow as additional consideration															100,000,000
Allowance for doubtful accounts		$ 0		$ 0		$ 0
Peiod in which current obligation overdue																12 months
Earnings per share
Common shares that can be purchased upon exercise of options								1,264,090	1,361,509	1,300,000
Average exercise price of common stock (in dollars per share)								$ 12.53	$ 13.12	$ 15.52
Warrants that can be purchased (in shares)	1,700,000	400,000	1,700,000	400,000	1,700,000
Average exercise price of warrants (in dollars per share)	$ 23.44	$ 10.40	$ 23.44	$ 10.40	$ 23.44
Common shares that can be purchased using the treasury stock method, had there been net income		3,000	55,250	27,000	57,375
Common shares that can be purchased using the treasury stock method, had there been net income				0	0