Vitol offers Venezuelan oil to China for April delivery, sources say

SINGAPORE, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Vitol has offered Venezuelan oil to Chinese buyers at discounts of about $5 per barrel to ICE Brent for April delivery, multiple trade sources said.

The offers were made on Friday to a number of refiners, including independent refiners who used to be China's main Venezuelan oil buyers at a deeper discount, one of the sources said.

Independent refiners are unlikely to take up the offers, however, given the sharp increase of prices from a discount of about $15 per barrel in December, trade sources said.

Vitol is also approaching Indian state refiners to sell the oil. India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals MRPL.NS is exploring purchases of Venezuelan oil as it halts imports of Russian oil to comply with Western sanctions, its head of finance Devendra Kumar said on Monday.