Iran is ready to put into operation a $400 million drilling platform in the Caspian Sea. Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will open the 14,000-ton Iran-Alborz rig "in the coming weeks."
Commissioned in 2002, Iran's Sadra Group and Sweden's GVA built the semi-floating offshore facility, the Persian Journal reported on May 10. The deposits in Iran's portion of the Caspian Sea are estimated to hold some 32 billion barrels of oil.
