From May 15, the world's largest oil companies intend to reduce the volume of oil purchased from Russia, Reuters reports citing anonymous sources.

Shell has already stopped buying Russian crude oil, and Vitol, the world's largest oil trader, has said it will completely cut crude oil supplies from Russia by the end of 2022, with companies like Trafigura following suit.

The source claims that major oil trading firms intend to reduce their purchases in order not to violate EU sanctions against Russia, although the bloc has not yet officially banned oil imports from the country.

The EU currently allows the purchase of crude oil from Gazprom Neft or Rosneft on the grounds that it is needed to maintain sufficient energy reserves.

In addition, EU countries have discussed a potential oil embargo against Russia, while the US has banned all energy imports from the country, and the UK has promised to cut all energy imports from Russia by the end of 2022.

Last week, the EU took the first steps to ban energy imports from Russia, halting all coal imports starting later this year.

Many European countries are heavily dependent on oil imports from Russia. Germany, the region's largest economy, could lose $240 billion, or 6.5% of its annual economic output, within two years if Russian gas supplies are cut off.

The EU receives about 3.1 million barrels of oil per day from Russia, which covers about 30% of its needs. Russia supplies the EU with more oil than the three largest suppliers - Iraq, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia - combined. Germany and the Netherlands are the main destinations.