June 14 (Reuters) - New Fortress Energy ( NFE ) said on

Friday it expects to start production of liquefied natural gas

at its offshore Altamira-based plant in Mexico in the next ten

days and would begin shipping the gas in July.

The pre-operations and remaining commissioning activities

have been completed, New Fortress said.

The U.S. LNG producer's Altamira plant is Mexico's first

such facility and has been delayed several times.

In May, the company said it expected to export the first

cargo in June. The production deadlines were missed in September

and December last year, as well as in February this year.

Earlier, the company had said the first LNG train, the

liquefaction unit, would cost about $1 billion.