Kuwait and Iraq plan to appoint consultants to study the development of shared oil fields, as a solution to long-standing tensions over cross border oilfields, Reuters reported.

Kuwaiti oil minister Bakhit al-Rashidi said that the two countries should agree on plans for shared fields by the end of the year, as well as agreeing on a supply of Iraqi natural gas to Kuwait.

“The shared oil fields project aims at producing oil from border fields,” he said, adding that oil should be produced by “one company and one team, production will be shared and the cost will be split between the two sides.”

The study will be conducted by a consultancy firm agreed on by both countries from an established list of four candidates, Rashidi stated without giving details.

The planned supply of gas from the Iraqi Rumaila field to a Kuwait petrochemical plant is still awaiting a final approval despite Kuwait stating in 2017 that a preliminary agreement had been made over the fuel price.

The gas exports would help Iraq pay off the final $4.6 billion owed to Kuwait in reparations for the Gulf War which ended in February 1991.

Rashidi also said that talks were underway to link the electricity grids of Iraq and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), whose members are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain.

“There will also be a project in the future for an electricity link between Iraq and Turkey, thus achieving a linkup between the GCC and Europe,” the minister said.