Venezuela's PDVSA is moving to offload a crude cargo stuck on board a Knutsen Group tanker for more than a year.

Documents seen by Reuters show the state oil company was planning to discharge nearly 1m barrels of crude from the 146,000-dwt Gerd Knutsen (built 1996) last week.

The move is part of a battle between PDVSA and its refining unit Citgo, which owns the cargo and is controlled by president Nicolas Maduro's opposition rival Juan Guaido.

PDVSA has denied the tanker permission to leave Venezuela since early last year.

It had classed the cargo as “floating storage” while fighting Citgo over ownership.

“This tanker will discharge diluted crude oil. It has been anchored at the Pozuelos Bay since Jan 23, 2019,” a PDVSA February scheduling document reads.

AIS data shows the last update on 11 February from near the Jose Terminal.

Rival boards compete for cargo

Citgo and PDVSA declined to comment and Knutsen has yet to reply to a request for confirmation.

Last year, a Citgo board named by Maduro sued the opposition-linked board running the company in a US court for control of the refining firm, but lost the case.

The opposition-linked board then sought a court order to prevent the tanker from discharging in Venezuela, after the Maduro-linked board delivered a letter to Gerd Knutsen’s captain requesting it to return the $57m cargo to PDVSA.

Bloomberg cited a domestic source as saying Citgo is now considering an insurance claim over the matter.

The ship was at one point bound for the US but was stuck in limbo after the US imposed tougher sanctions on PDVSA in late January 2019 to stop Maduro raising money from oil sales.

The cargo consists mainly of diluted crude oil, as well as 30,000 barrels of Pedernales crude.