Article: Houston Firm Finishes Offshore Rig for Caspian Sea Drilling.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Aug. 31--Transocean Sedco Forex has completed construction of a $175 million offshore drilling rig that will help oil companies finally proceed with drilling projects in the Caspian Sea, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

A lack of drilling rigs and pipelines has slowed development of Caspian Sea oil reserves, estimated to be as high as 200 billion barrels. That number could climb even higher depending on the development of a field discovered this year in Kazakhstan's section of the sea estimated to hold as much as 50 billion barrels of oil.

"The Russians had built some rigs, but this will be the first Western-built jack-up rig to enter the Caspian ...

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