Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the European Commission is working on details of an oil embargo on Russia as part of a possible next sanctions package, but that nothing has been decided.
He said he hoped it could be agreed by the EU's 27 states as soon as possible but gave no further details.
Mr Coveney is attending an EU foreign affairs council meeting in Luxembourg today, with the war in Ukraine as one of the main topics.
More European Union sanctions on Russia are an option, the bloc's top diplomat said today when asked if the EU was ready to consider a Russian oil embargo in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"Sanctions are always on the table," he told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.
"Ministers will discuss which are the further steps," he said.
Foreign Minister @simoncoveney says
— Paul Cunningham (@RTENewsPaulC) April 11, 2022
Ireland's position is that oil should be sanctioned - as he arrived for EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg. #Ukraine @rtenews
"Ireland has maintained for quite some time that we need to take a maximalist approach to sanctions to offer the strongest possible deterrent to the continuation of this war and brutality and that should include, in our view, oil.
"We know that that's very difficult for some member states and we have to keep a united position across the EU, but certainly we now have coal as part of a sanctions package.
"We know that the Commission is also now working on a future package that we hope we can see soon that will involve oil as well, and the European Union is spending hundreds of millions of euros on importing oil from Russia, that is certainly contributing to financing this war, and in our view we need to cut off that financing of war, even though it creates huge challenges and problems for the EU to solve together," he added.
Mr Coveney's Dutch and Lithuanian counterparts also said the European Commission was looking at ways at targeting Russian oil, which makes up about a quarter of the EU's crude imports, as a means to pressure Russia to halt the shelling of Ukrainian cities.
"We are looking at all other (sanctions), including energy," Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a "coordinated plan to completely phase out fossil fuels" from Russia, but EU diplomats have said Berlin is not actively supporting an immediate embargo.
The European Commission was not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, Austria's chancellor will become the first European leader to visit Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as Kyiv prepares for a huge Russian offensive in the country's east.
Karl Nehammer said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is expected to raise alleged war crimes in devastated areas around Kyiv that were under Russian occupation, including the town of Bucha.
Ukrainian authorities say over 1,200 bodies have been found in the area so far and that they are weighing cases against "500 suspects" including Putin and other top Russian officials.
Russian forces are now turning their focus to the Donbas region in the east, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian troops were preparing "even larger operations".
