Energy Roundup: Sherritt Cancels Cuba Op, OPEC Eyes Production Cut, SolarWorld Opens Biggest Plan, and More

Sherritt cancels offshore Cuba operation -- Canada's Sherritt has dropped its oil-production contract with Cuba to develop oil resources in the Gulf of Mexico, saying they weren't "worth continuing." Sherritt had been developing four blocks in the Exclusive Economic Zone off the northwestern coast of Cuba. Repsol-YPF, StatoilHydro, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Petronas, PdVSA and PetroVietnam continue to operate in the area. The Cuban Zone in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico takes up 143,243 square miles, divided into 59 exploration blocks. [Source: Rigzone]
OPEC considers production cut -- Reuters reports that "OPEC oil producers are leaning towards cutting production by 1 to 1.5 million barrels per day." [Source: Reuters via Orange]

SolarWorld opens largest photovoltaic plant -- Hillsboro, Oregon-based SolarWorld has opened the largest solar cell manufacturing facility in North America to date. The facility is expected to reach a capacity of 500 megawatts by 2011. [Source: Yahoo Finance]

Finland's Olkiluoto nuclear plant delayed -- The completion of Finland's Olkiluoto plant, Europe's first pressurized nuclear reactor, is to be delayed for another three years. Originally, the 1,600 megawatt plant was slated to go online in 2009, the reactor will not be fired up until at least 2012. The announcement was made by developer, Areva-Siemens, which did not give a specific reason for the delay. [Source: Yahoo Finance]

Lehman Brothers' Eagle Energy to be sold to French -- Electricite de France will buy Eagle Energy Partners from Lehman Brothers Holdings for an undisclosed sum. Eagle delivers natural gas and electric power in the U.S. and Canada providing about 35,000 megawatt hours of electricity every day. It stores some 30 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. [Source: WSJ.com]