May 8 (Reuters) - New Fortress Energy ( NFE ) said on

Wednesday it delayed the start of its Altamira liquefied natural

gas (LNG) plant in Mexico to May and expects to export its first

cargo in June after an incident a few days before the country's

first LNG export plant was due to begin production.

U.S.-based New Fortress announced the latest timing for its

first Fast LNG (FLNG) train in its first quarter earnings

release and presentation.

In its previous results released in

February

, the company said it expected to produce first LNG in March

and send out its first cargo in April.

That too had been a delay from previous

December and September

planned start up dates for the first train at the

1.4-million-tonnes-per-annum (MTPA) floating LNG project located

off the coast of Altamira.

In a call with analysts on Wednesday, New Fortress Chief

Financial Officer Christopher Guinta said there was "an incident

with a pipe fracture inside of our cold box last Friday, April

26."

"This is an extremely unfortunate given that we (were)

expecting first LNG [a mere] 72 hours later ... Thankfully, no

significant injuries were sustained as a result," Guinta said.

"The damage was isolated to one pipe and manifold within the

box and is expected to be repaired by next weekend," Guinta

said.

The company also said in February that it started

construction of a second FLNG train onshore at Altamira and

expected to complete that unit in the first quarter of 2026.

New Fortress did not discuss Train 2 in its earnings release

and officials were not immediately available to talk about the

status of Train 2 at Altamira.

Each Fast LNG unit can turn about 0.18 billion cubic feet

per day of natural gas into 1.4 MTPA of LNG.

In the past, New Fortress said the first train at Altamira

would cost about $1 billion.

New Fortress stock gained about 4% to a one-week high of

$27.17 in midday trade on Wednesday.