The joint venture partners behind a new refinery project at Jubail in Saudi Arabia have pushed back the start-up date by more than six months, according to a report by Reuters.

France’s Total and stat energy giant Saudi Aramco had planned to commission the 400,000 barrel a day refinery by March 2013, but have pushed back the start-up to an undisclosed date in “late 2013”, the Canada-headquartered news agency said in a 16 February report.

Aramco holds a 62.5 per cent stake in the project while Total holds the remaining 37.5 per cent.