Southfuels general manager (sales and marketing) Greg Cassidy said the new provider had intended to fit a canopy on Tuesday, when the station was to reopen. However, the job was far more involved than first thought and entailed removing the fuel pumps.
The work would take three or four weeks, depending how complex it turned out to be.
Last August a truck crashed into the then Shell station, damaging its canopy.
Southfuels stepped in after Shell's owner, Greenstone Energy, said the site was unprofitable.
Waikouaiti Coast Community Board chairman Gerard Collings said he was frustrated with the delay, and he expected locals, stuck with buying petrol in Palmerston or Dunedin, were even more so.
Mr Collings, who had been involved with negotiations to attract a new provider, said initial delays arose when several parties had been involved with the talks.
Once open, the station will operate 24 hours a day, using a card-payment system.
Southfuels had hoped to reopen the station early in the new year.
