TEHRAN -- A semi-submersible oil rig will be delivered to Iranian contractors in the Caspian Sea in middle of next Iranian year which starts on March 21.

Announcing this, Public Relations Department at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) reported here on Monday that operations on the project had shown more than 59 percent progress until the end of `Khordad', the third month in Iranian calendar.

The NIOC Public Relations Department said the consortium of Iran Maritime Industries (Sadra) and Swedish GVA-C Corp., had won a bid on the dlrs 215 million contract in 2001.

The rig can operate deep in water to drill in the land-locked sea.

Sadra has also won a dlrs 50.6 million plus rls 48 billion contract in two chunks of international tenders in January 2002 for construction of three more such rigs.