Santos (STO.AX) announced on Thursday that an Australian court had issued a temporary injunction to stop the company from beginning construction on the $3.6 billion Barossa gas project off the coast of northern Australia.

The decision was made in response to a motion filed by Simon Munkara, a Tiwi Islands native and traditional landowner, with the Federal Court of Australia to delay construction on the pipeline until its effects and potential risks to undersea cultural assets were adequately evaluated.

The law firm Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), which had pushed the government to issue a prompt proclamation to stop the pipeline’s development, was representing Munkara and other indigenous elders from the Tiwi Islands.

According to an EDO statement, Munkara said that the pipeline will seriously harm holy ancestral places, historic burial grounds, and Aboriginal art.

On November 13, the court will decide whether to continue the injunction until the accelerated final hearing.

Santos stated that their projections for project cost and timeline remained the same. The company plans to produce gas from Barossa in the first half of 2025. It will go on defending the legal actions.

Although it did not forbid the commencement of work, Australia’s offshore regulator required Santos to assess the environmental hazards to undersea indigenous cultural assets before beginning pipeline construction in January.

According to Santos, who cited an impartial expert, there were no particular underwater cultural heritage sites along the pipeline’s proposed path. Munkara’s attorneys informed the court that a Santos ship was just hours away from starting construction on the channel. According to Santos, the vessel will stay where it is, but no pipeline construction will occur while the temporary injunction is in effect.

The project now faces further obstacles as a result of the court’s decision, which is also a victory for indigenous organizations that have been fighting fossil fuel initiatives because they may harm the environment and their cultural legacy.

Following a legal challenge by an Indigenous woman, the federal court in September suspended Woodside’s (WDS.AX) authority to perform seismic blasting beneath the seabed for its $12 billion Scarborough gas project.