The Kurdistan regional government has told oil companies working in the northern Iraqi province that they will be able to export oil using Iraq’s main pipeline as early as next month, an apparent breakthrough in a long-running dispute about sharing Iraq’s oil wealth.

The oil ministry in Baghdad confirmed that crude extracted from some fields in Kurdistan could be exported. There remained significant confusion, however, and analysts warned this could be yet another false start. “We are absolutely certain oil will flow on [June 1],” Ashti Hawrami, the KRG’s oil minister, told the Financial Times.