Iraq opened bidding on Monday for the first round of contracts to develop its oil fields since the US invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein. Iraq’s oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani announced Iraq is seeking bids on twenty-year contracts to develop six major oil and two natural gas fields. Iraq has the world’s third-largest oil reserves with known reserves of 115 billion barrels. Last month, Royal Dutch Shell became the first foreign oil giant to open an office in Iraq in three decades. Shell was one of the original partners of the Iraq Petroleum Company before Saddam Hussein nationalized Iraq’s oil resources in the 1970s.