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Fair Values of Financial Instruments - Additional Information (Detail)	3 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2015	Dec. 31, 2014
4.97% Series A Senior Notes, Due October 5th 2020
Fair Value Balance Sheet Grouping Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]
Current market rates used in measuring fair value	4.11%pten_MinimumPercentageOfFairValueTransactionsCorroboratedUsingObservableMarketInputsRequiredForLevelTwo / us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis = pten_SeriesASeniorNotesFourPointNineSevenPercentDueOctoberFiveTwentyTwentyMember	5.77%pten_MinimumPercentageOfFairValueTransactionsCorroboratedUsingObservableMarketInputsRequiredForLevelTwo / us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis = pten_SeriesASeniorNotesFourPointNineSevenPercentDueOctoberFiveTwentyTwentyMember
4.27% Series B Senior Notes, Due June 14th 2022
Fair Value Balance Sheet Grouping Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]
Current market rates used in measuring fair value	4.37%pten_MinimumPercentageOfFairValueTransactionsCorroboratedUsingObservableMarketInputsRequiredForLevelTwo / us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis = pten_SeriesBSeniorNotesFourPointTwoSevenPercentDueJuneFourteenTwentyTwentyTwoMember	6.00%pten_MinimumPercentageOfFairValueTransactionsCorroboratedUsingObservableMarketInputsRequiredForLevelTwo / us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis = pten_SeriesBSeniorNotesFourPointTwoSevenPercentDueJuneFourteenTwentyTwentyTwoMember

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