diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/vultr.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/vultr.py
index 69496f5c41..ecb85f8cd9 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/vultr.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/vultr.py
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ class Vultr:
         # For caching HTTP API responses
         self.api_cache = dict()
 
-        # Reads the config from vultr.ini
         try:
-            config = self.read_ini_config()
+            config = self.read_env_variables()
+            config.update(self.read_ini_config())
         except KeyError:
             config = {}
 
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@ class Vultr:
                                "in section '%s' in the ini config file has not an int value: timeout, retries. "
                                "Error was %s" % (self.module.params.get('api_account'), to_native(e)))
 
+        if not self.api_config.get('api_key'):
+            self.module.fail_json(msg="The API key is not speicied. Please refer to the documentation.")
+
         # Common vultr returns
         self.result['vultr_api'] = {
             'api_account': self.module.params.get('api_account'),
@@ -76,18 +79,18 @@ class Vultr:
             'Accept': 'application/json',
         }
 
-    def read_ini_config(self):
-        ini_group = self.module.params.get('api_account')
-
+    def read_env_variables(self):
         keys = ['key', 'timeout', 'retries', 'endpoint']
         env_conf = {}
         for key in keys:
             if 'VULTR_API_%s' % key.upper() not in os.environ:
-                break
-            else:
-                env_conf[key] = os.environ['VULTR_API_%s' % key.upper()]
-        else:
-            return env_conf
+                continue
+            env_conf[key] = os.environ['VULTR_API_%s' % key.upper()]
+
+        return env_conf
+
+    def read_ini_config(self):
+        ini_group = self.module.params.get('api_account')
 
         paths = (
             os.path.join(os.path.expanduser('~'), '.vultr.ini'),
@@ -95,11 +98,13 @@ class Vultr:
         )
         if 'VULTR_API_CONFIG' in os.environ:
             paths += (os.path.expanduser(os.environ['VULTR_API_CONFIG']),)
-        if not any((os.path.exists(c) for c in paths)):
-            self.module.fail_json(msg="Config file not found. Tried : %s" % ", ".join(paths))
 
         conf = configparser.ConfigParser()
         conf.read(paths)
+
+        if not conf._sections.get(ini_group):
+            return dict()
+
         return dict(conf.items(ini_group))
 
     def fail_json(self, **kwargs):