The European Commission has pushed back a deadline for deciding whether to give Russia more access to the Opal gas pipeline across Germany to the end of January from the end of October, a Commission official said on Monday, Nov 3, according to Reuters.

Russian gas exporter Gazprom is currently allowed only limited access to the pipeline under a European Union law which seeks to prevent energy suppliers from dominating infrastructure. A decision on granting it greater access has already been delayed several times.

"The Commission has agreed with the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) to prolong the deadline for issuing a decision on Opal," the official said, adding that the new deadline was the end of January 2015.