Royal Dutch Shell PLC is giving up on its last oil fields in Iraq, leaving the world's second-biggest oil company with a dwindling footprint in the Middle East -- a region it helped build into a petroleum powerhouse. Shell said Monday it is selling for an undisclosed amount a stake in the West Qurna 1 oil field in Iraq to Japan's Itochu Corp., the latest step in a gradual retreat from the region. The company is also expected to give up its holding in Iraq's Majnoon oil field later this year, though it will retain its natural-gas interests in the country. Shell's departure from Iraqi oil assets marks one of the final chapters in a slow pullback from the Middle East's vast fields of petroleum. Shell pumped as much as 450,000 barrels of oil in 2003 in the Middle East, and over the past 15 years had operations that produced thousands of barrels of oil daily across six countries in the region. Once it officially leaves Iraq later this year, Shell will have oil assets in Oman that produce about 220,000 barrels a day.via