Executives from Vitol this week instructed business partners in Venezuela to assess terminals operated by state-run energy company PDVSA, including Amuay and El Palito, to begin loading fuel oil cargoes there in the coming days, the sources said.
Vitol and PDVSA did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Venezuela has millions of barrels of crude and fuel oil stored onshore and in vessels as a consequence of a US oil blockade that began in December as a way to pressure Maduro’s administration.
The OPEC country produces high-sulphur residual fuel oil, which it used to sell to customers in Asia.
(Reporting by Marianna Parraga in Houston and Shariq Khan in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)