The $7bn Jordan crude oil pipeline planned by Iraq’s Oil Ministry is now officially on hold and several people believe that the scheme could take years to be resurrected, or even be cancelled permanently.

Security fears regarding terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq & Syria (Isis) in the north of Iraq is the primary reason for the stalling of the scheme, but there is also political resistance to the project that could mean it never gets built.

“If Iraq was serious about this project they could have completed all of the engineering and then moth-balled the project until this situation with Isis is concluded before quickly resurrecting it,” says a source familiar with the project. “But the feeling is there is now political opposition to the project and it will never see the light of day.”

Technical proposals were due on 15 May, followed by commercial proposals and bid bonds of $50m on 30 June. The Oil Ministry was then expected to complete its evaluation by July and to conclude negotiations with its preferred bidder before the end of 2014. Completion was due for 2018.

The project is being handled by State Company for Oil Projects (Scop), a subsidiary of the Oil Ministry, with Canada’s SNC Lavalin was acting as its adviser and project manager.

Basic designs are to be completed by October 2015, followed by a 34-month construction period. Commissioning and testing is expected to take 3 months, so the pipeline could begin operations by November 2018.

The scheme covered the construction and operation of a 42-inch, 1,000-kilometre pipeline connecting Haditha in the west of Iraq to Jordan’s Aqaba port, carrying as much as 1 million barrels a day (b/d) of crude oil.

The model mooted was build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT), which would have been the first of its kind in Iraq, under which a consortium will finance, construct, own and operate the pipeline with a 20-year concession period.

However, the terrorist insurrection in the north of the country means that it is extremely unlikely that the BOOT model will be used if the scheme is taken off hold.