Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luiebi said he plans to visit Kuwait in February to finalise a deal on exporting Iraqi gas.

According to a media report, Al-Luiebi also said that the selling price of the gas to be exported to Kuwait is yet to be agreed upon by the two countries.

The two neighbours are discussing a pipeline project to transport 50 million cubic feet of gas a day (mcf/d) of Iraqi gas to Kuwait for ten years, increasing to 200 mcf/d eventually during the period, as per a deal both parties signed last year.

The exports, to come from Iraq’s southern Rumaila field, would be used as feedstock for a Kuwaiti petrochemical plant and pay off Baghdad’s final $4.6bn of war reparations owed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Iraq hired Japan’s Toyo Engineering to help build the project.