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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won't authorize construction on its land near Lake Oahe in North and South Dakota until it determines if it should reconsider prior decisions to allow the project, the government said in a statement Friday. Federal officials also asked the company to voluntarily pause activity within 20 miles of the lake.

The decision by the Interior Department, Army and Justice Department came shortly after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington declined a request by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to halt work on the $3.8 billion project. The 1,172-mile pipeline that would bring oil from North Dakota's Bakken formation to markets in Illinois has drawn hundreds of protesters, including groups that successfully petitioned the Obama administration to reject the Keystone XL pipeline project.

The question is whether “the prospect for future changes alleviates tension sufficiently so that things simmer down and the pipeline can go forward,” said Christine Tezak, managing director at research firm ClearView Energy Partners LLC in Washington. “If tensions don't diffuse, I don't know when we'll see it.”

The best-case scenario is a few months of delay, which could mean the project falls into the hands of the next administration, she said.

Earlier, the ruling that construction on the pipeline could proceed came as a blow to critics who said the project would damage culturally significant sites and create an environmental hazard where it crosses the Missouri River.

The project likely complies with the National Historic Preservation Act, Judge Boasberg wrote in a memorandum accompanying his Friday opinion. “The Tribe has not shown it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the Court could issue,” he said.

Standing Rock Tribe

The Justice Department, in a joint statement with the Army and the Department of the Interior, said it needs to determine whether it's necessary to reconsider previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal laws.

“It was absolutely the right move,” said Jane Kleeb, president of activist group Bold Alliance and, before the current battle, a prominent opponent of TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL pipeline. “They listened to the people on the ground and really looked at what's been happening.”

Last year, the Obama administration intervened to reject plans ...