diff --git a/contrib/inventory/ec2.py b/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
index 88dd8845aab..c16e770259c 100755
--- a/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -220,12 +220,22 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
 
     def read_settings(self):
         ''' Reads the settings from the ec2.ini file '''
+
+        scriptbasename = __file__
+        scriptbasename = os.path.basename(scriptbasename)
+        scriptbasename = scriptbasename.replace('.py', '')
+
+        defaults = {'ec2': {
+            'ini_path': os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), '%s.ini' % scriptbasename)
+            }
+        }
+
         if six.PY3:
             config = configparser.ConfigParser()
         else:
             config = configparser.SafeConfigParser()
-        ec2_default_ini_path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)), 'ec2.ini')
-        ec2_ini_path = os.path.expanduser(os.path.expandvars(os.environ.get('EC2_INI_PATH', ec2_default_ini_path)))
+        ec2_ini_path = os.environ.get('EC2_INI_PATH', defaults['ec2']['ini_path'])
+        ec2_ini_path = os.path.expanduser(os.path.expandvars(ec2_ini_path))
         config.read(ec2_ini_path)
 
         # is eucalyptus?