BP’s Russian joint venture is preparing to enter the £3.8 billion auction for a 9.44 per cent stake in state oil giant Rosneft, it emerged today.

A TNK-BP spokesman said the business wanted to buy the shares currently held by Yukos, the bankrupt energy group formerly run by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oligarch .

The spokesman, Alexander Shadrin, said: “We are bidding to win. We are bidding for the stake to strengthen our strategic relations with Rosneft.”

The shock move comes as Rosneft revealed it has agreed to a jumbo £11.3 billion loan to take part in the auction of a string of Yukos assets, including five major refineries.

TNK-BP’s interest is likely to surprise analysts given mounting speculation that the Kremlin wants to wrestle back control of some of the venture’s most lucrative assets.

Industry insiders believe that TNK-BP is almost certain to sell a major stake in its giant Kovykta gas field to Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled gas titan. Gazprom is also being tipped to replace TNK as BP’s partner by the end of the year.

BP’s current and future chief executives, Lord Browne of Madingley and Tony Hayward are set to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks over the group’s future.

One City-based source said TNK-BP was likely to have been “invited” to take part in the Rosneft auction to ensure it looks competitive.

“It seems pretty clear that either Gazprom or Rosneft itself will win the shares,” he told TimesOnline.

Rosneft acquired Yukos’ prize asset Yugansk after a controversial state auction at the end of 2004. At the time of that auction, Yugansk was producing more than one million barrels per day, at the time double the production from all of Rosneft’s oil units.

Yukos’ holding of Rosneft shares is being sold off on March 27. The stake has a starting price of $7.47 billion (£3.8 billion), against a market value of $8.86 billion.

Yukos was pushed to the brink of collapse by a series of tax probes by the Kremlin. Its former owners have called the upcoming auctions a farce.

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