ORGANIZATION AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Details) (USD $)	0 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended					12 Months Ended				12 Months Ended	0 Months Ended	12 Months Ended				0 Months Ended	12 Months Ended		0 Months Ended	9 Months Ended				1 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2012	Dec. 31, 2012	Jun. 30, 2014 item bbl	Jun. 30, 2013	Jun. 30, 2012	Feb. 02, 2012	Jun. 30, 2011	Jun. 30, 2014 Stock options	Jun. 30, 2013 Stock options	Jun. 30, 2012 Stock options	Jun. 30, 2011 Stock options	Jun. 30, 2014 Unvested restricted stock awards	May 16, 2014 AGR Lawsuit	Jun. 30, 2014 AGR Lawsuit	Jun. 30, 2014 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Investigations	Jun. 30, 2014 Minimum	Jun. 30, 2014 Maximum	May 16, 2014 AGR Peak Well Management Ltd AGR Lawsuit	Jun. 30, 2014 AGR Peak Well Management Ltd AGR Lawsuit	Jun. 30, 2014 Dana	Dec. 31, 2012 Tullow Guinea Ltd	Jun. 30, 2014 Tullow Guinea Ltd	Jun. 30, 2014 Guinea concession bbl	Dec. 30, 2012 Guinea concession	Jun. 30, 2014 Guinea concession Dana	Feb. 29, 2012 Sabu-1 well m item
Nature of business
Number of wholly-owned subsidiaries			2
Status of our Business
Cash			$ 35,270,000	$ 26,468,000	$ 37,148,000		$ 79,889,000
Liabilities			5,662,000	22,694,000
Other commitments			0
Ownership interest sold (as a percent)		40.00%																			40.00%
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
Additional amount sought based ownership interest held																			7,300,000
Release of escrowed cash upon litigation settlement													17,700,000	17,700,000
Restricted cash held in escrow in connection with our drilling contract with AGR				19,190,000									19,200,000	0
Excess drilling equipment released as a part of litigation settlement													6,800,000	6,800,000				6,800,000
Net proceeds after reconciliation of the joint interest account with Dana Petroleum, the other working interest holder													15,800,000
Legal and other professional fees															7,500,000
Threshold gross expenditure cap for well to be paid by the entity	100,000,000
Costs applied against gross expenditure cap related to future costs associated with drilling of an exploration well																						14,100,000
Gross expenditure for an appraisal well to be paid by Tullow as additional consideration																					100,000,000
Gross expenditure for an ultra-deepwater exploration well to be paid by Tullow as additional consideration	100,000,000																					100,000,000
Maximum period of time over which current available liquidity could be exhausted			12 months
Allowance for doubtful accounts			0	0
Oil and Gas Properties
Gain or loss recorded for oil and natural gas properties			0
Average period over which oil and natural gas price is based to derive future net revenue			12 months
Discount percentage			10.00%
Proved reserves			0																				0
Amortization of proved oil and gas properties subject to the full-cost ceiling test			0	400,000	116,300,000
Property and Equipment, other than Oil and Gas
Estimated useful lives of the assets																3 years	5 years
Impairments of property and equipment			0	0	0
Income Taxes
Percentage of likelihood of realization that the tax position must exceed in order for the amount to be recognized in the financial statements																50.00%
Unrecognized tax benefits			5,485,000	5,485,000	5,485,000		5,485,000
Earnings Per Share
Common shares that can be purchased upon exercise of options								1,441,727	1,361,509	1,561,913	1,159,356
Average exercise price of common stock (in dollars per share)								$ 8.76	$ 13.12	$ 16.72	$ 14.80
Warrants that can be purchased (in shares)			30,000	400,000	1,700,000	1,250,000
Average exercise price of warrants (in dollars per share)			$ 11.69	$ 10.40	$ 23.52	$ 28.00
Common shares that can be purchased using the treasury stock method, had there been net income								1,412	40,000	400,000		21,030
Common shares that can be purchased using the treasury stock method, had there been net income			0	0	200,000
Gross Value
Accumulated other comprehensive loss at the beginning of the period			94,000
Change in fair value of available-for-sale securities			(25,000)	94,000
Reclassification adjustment for realized losses included in net loss			(69,000)
Accumulated other comprehensive loss at the end of the period				94,000
Net of Tax Value
Accumulated other comprehensive loss at the beginning of the period			94,000
Change in fair value of available-for-sale securities			(25,000)	94,000
Reclassification adjustment for realized losses included in net loss			69,000
Accumulated other comprehensive loss at the end of the period				94,000
Total comprehensive loss			$ 17,023,000	$ 18,555,000	$ 148,964,000