The government of Venezuela and its oil company PDVSA offered to use the yuan currency to pay Chinese contractors and suppliers said five people familiar with the issue.
The move made in recent months is the latest example of how Caracas has been searching for new ways to make international payments since Washington's sweeping sanctions aimed at forcing socialist President Nicolas Maduro out of the country's access to the US financial system.
Finance regulators made the proposition to at least four businesses that provide services to the public sector, the sources said, including two government officials and three sources from the financial or oil sector's private companies.
The companies were reviewing the plan, said the sources. Reuters was unable to determine if any such payments were made in yuan.
The People's Bank of China did not respond to a faxed request for comment, neither did the PDVSA, the central bank of Venezuela and its information ministry.
Venezuelan public entities have traditionally paid private sector partners in the local Bolivarian currency. But such approaches are hampered by ballooning inflation and US restrictions, which bar American businesses from doing trade with the public sector in Venezuela.
The offer comes in response to Venezuela's loss of access to the US financial system due to the sanctions. PDVSA paid some suppliers and contractors with euros in cash that they received from some oil and gold sales.
Paying vendors in yuan will allow Venezuela to take advantage of the funds available in China without disrupting the US financial system. Nevertheless, the method of opening Chinese banks accounts was proving to be complicated.
PDVSA and the central bank of Venezuela have held accounts in China for a long time, thanks in part to a financing deal inked more than 10 years ago that saw the Chinese lending the OPEC nation around $50 billion in return for crude deliveries.
The offer of Venezuela to pay in yuan also comes as some Chinese entities have taken new measures to try to distance themselves from the a country that has been sanctioned.
The China National Petroleum Corporation, one of Venezuela's largest foreign shareholders in the oil sector stopped leaving Venezuelan ports in August because of worries over sanctions.
Market experts said they expect China's imports of Venezuelan crude to have dropped to zero in October. But the country is importing more and more crude blends from Malaysia, which include some Venezuelan oil.
