President Putin has launched an extraordinary attack on BP in the latest twist to the bitter dispute over the development of the giant $20 billion Kovykta gasfield.

Speaking ahead of the G8 summit in Germany today, he signalled that the Kremlin had run out of patience with the group and its Russian partners in charge of the Siberian project.

He said: “I would like to stress that the field has reserves of three trillion cubic metres. To understand its importance for our country it is equal to almost all the reserves of Canada.

“But if the members of the consortium are doing nothing to meet licence obligations, how much longer do we have to tolerate this?”

The comments will spark fresh speculation over BP’s future in the country.

Only three days ago , the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources postponed a decision on whether to revoke the licence at Kovykta held by TNK-BP, the group’s Russian joint venture, for two weeks.

This meant that any decision would come after the G8 summit and the Kremlin’s showcase Economic Forum in St Petersburg next weekend.

Analysts widely expect TNK-BP to be forced to hand over a majority stake in the field to Gazprom, the Kremlin-backed gas giant.

But it is thought that as part of the deal, the Russian billionaires controlling TNK may also be forced to sell their stakes in their joint venture to Gazprom.

Mr Putin gave his blessing to the creation of TNK-BP four years ago.

Tony Hayward, the BP chief executive, flew out to Moscow last Thursday for talks about Kovykta with Alexey Miller, the Gazprom chief executive.

At present Kovykta accounts for less than 2 per cent of TNK-BP’s output, but its potential is vast.

TNK-BP asserts that it has been unable to meet production targets of nine billion cubic meters a year because of the lack of an export deal to China.

All gas exports from Russia have to go through Gazprom, and so far it has refused to back the construction of an export pipeline from the field, claiming that it may be more cost effective to export gas to China from other areas of the country.

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