Income Taxes (Details Textual) (USD $)	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2011 Drillship	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2009	Dec. 31, 2011 2006 Tax Year [Member]	Jan. 31, 2012 2006 Tax Year [Member] Mexico [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 2000 Tax Year [Member] Brazil [Member]	Dec. 31, 2009 2004 & 2005 Tax Year [Member] Brazil [Member]	Dec. 31, 2011 2004 Tax Year [Member] Mexico [Member]
Income Tax Examination [Line Items]
Total tax assessment including interest and penalty					$ 24,400,000	$ 1,500,000	$ 26,000,000	$ 22,900,000
Decrease in unrecognized tax benefits attributable to transfer pricing methodology	3,744,000		5,586,000	6,800,000
Income Taxes (Textual) [Abstract]
Taxes for undistributed earnings of the foreign subsidiaries	(24,000)	(15,023,000)
Amount of undistributed foreign earnings and profit	1,700,000,000
Number of new drillships	3
Reversal of income taxes that had provided in prior periods for earnings of DEAL	15,000,000
Deferred Tax Asset on Worker's compensation and other current accruals included in prepaid expenses and other current assets	6,800,000	9,557,000
Unrecognized tax benefits that would impact effective tax rate if recognized	41,200,000
Interest expense(income) associated with uncertain tax positions	200,000	4,800,000	(3,400,000)
Penalty expensed (reversed) associated with uncertain tax positions	(3,000,000)	12,000,000	4,700,000
Total accrued interest and penalties associated with uncertain tax positions	31,400,000	34,200,000
Recognition of tax benefits from uncertain tax positions	greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement
Accrued liabilities related to income tax examination	13,800,000
Accrued interest related to income tax examination	3,600,000
Accrued penalties related to income tax examination	3,500,000
Interest related to income tax examination	1,100,000
Penalties related to income tax examination	2,000,000
NOL carryforwards	27,200,000
Deferred tax asset relates to NOL carry forwards	8,200,000
Tax benefit of NOL carrryforwards, Mexico	19,000,000
Valuation allowance of NOL	26,353,000	31,916,000
Deferred Tax Asset Not Realized	$ 800,000