SYDNEY—Santos’s attempt to lay a pipeline through a gas field off Australia’s north coast has been held up after a court granted an interim injunction delaying the start of the project.

The Australian energy explorer on Thursday said that Australia’s Federal Court had granted an injunction delaying the commencement of the laying of the Barossa gas-export pipeline until Nov. 13, following allegations that the project could affect submerged sites of cultural importance to the indigenous inhabitants of the nearby Tiwi Islands.