New Fortress Energy, a U.S. energy company that specializes in infrastructure development, said it shipped its first shipment of liquefied gas from Mexico to the United States on Monday. This was after the start-up of the floating facility worth $1 billion in the Gulf of Mexico had been delayed.

New Fortress completed early August preproduction on the first train in its Fast LNG Project in Altamira. It said that a first partial shipment from the facility will be delivered to the La Paz Power Plant in Mexico.

According to LSEG and the Marshall Islands flagged LNG tanker Energos princess, the vessel that carried the cargo from Mexico's Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast via the Panama Canal in late August is now sailing with a new shipment destined for Europe.

Data showed that the vessel would reach its destination by Oct. 18.

Wes Edens is the chairman and CEO of New Fortress. He said in a press release that this was a major milestone for their Fast LNG installation. "We are excited to be able provide our own supply of gas to the world market and our customers."

The company faced delays since last year to complete infrastructure at the 1.4 million-tonnes-per-annum project and begin processing U.S. natural gas in Mexico, which postponed the commercial start of Mexico's first LNG plant.

New Fortress announced in early September that it had been granted authorization by the U.S. Department of Energy for Altamira to export LNG from Altamira to countries not covered by free trade agreements. This authorization is valid for five years. It was previously authorized to export to countries under free trade agreements.

New Fortress had announced in a separate press release that it would postpone the payment of its previously declared Class A common stock $0.10 dividend per share as it sought to meet near-term maturity and liquidity needs.

The company said that it expected to reach an agreement soon with its noteholders, and it would then reevaluate dividend payments.

According to data from the company, after the announcement, shares of the company fell more than 12%, to as low at $8.20. They recovered to $8.70, but were still below their opening price per share of $9.51. (Reporting from Seher Dareen, Bengaluru; Marianna Pararaga, Houston; Editing done by Vijay Kishore and Chris Reese)

(source: Reuters)