State oil firm Petronas will start up its $19 billion petrochemicals complex in Malaysia in 2018, the company told Reuters on Tuesday, signaling a further delay in the country's largest-ever infrastructure project. A delay to the project in southern Johor state could deal a potential blow to the economy of the Southeast Asian nation as well as local oil and gas services firms hoping for work on the massive complex.

A source familiar with Petronas' business strategy told Reuters the project had been complicated by a need to secure water supplies as well as cater for proposed international partners.

Petronas had already put back the project from late 2016 to early 2017 in June and revised the final investment decision (FID) to the first quarter next year, citing state government problems in relocating villages and graves from the 2,000 hectare-site, five times the size of New York's Central Park.

This is at least six months later than market expectations after local media had cited Petronas CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas in June as saying the start date for phase one of the RAPID project had been pushed back to early 2017.