Freeport LNG has received approval from US federal regulators to begin part of its restart phase of its damaged export plant.
However, the company has not sought permission to restart the liquefaction trains, according to a Reuters report.
Energy analysts told the newswire that they expect most of the plant's production to remain off line until at least March, or even later.
The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the US Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recently granted Freeport's request to begin cooling down some of the plant's piping systems.
This procedure, which Freeport claimed would take about 11 days, would be a first step to returning the facility to normal operations after a seven-month outage.
FERC confirmed in a filing that "additional authorisation to restart operations is necessary to reinstate service ... of the liquefaction trains."
Freeport LNG had earlier said that repairs had been completed.
Before its enforced shutdown, Freeport was responsible for about 20% of US exports.
