By Ted Thornhill

Security experts say the operation to transport it safely will be enormous as that amount of gold – 17,000 400-ounce bars – is rarely moved around.

What’s more, flying is out of the question because no insurance company would be able to cover a single aircraft carrying a consignment of gold this big, which is worth £7billion. This means that ships will have to be used, which are far more vulnerable.

Precious metal: The Bank of England's vaults store huge quantities of gold bullion. Moving Venezuela's stock will be a security nightmare

The decision by the South American leader comes at a time when the price of gold is soaring. Yesterday it hit a record high of $1,825.99 an ounce.

In light of this, there is a trend for countries to store their physical gold reserves at home, but the order from Chavez could also be one of trust – that he doesn’t want his nation’s precious metals locked up in nations he considers unfriendly.

To gold-ly go: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez

'Chavez's move ... could be the result of looking for alternative jurisdiction from the U.S and Europe, as he sees in the future a threat of international seizure of those assets,' said IHS Global Insight analyst Diego Moya-Ocampos.

A whopping 99.2 tonnes of his gold is stored in the Bank of England’s vaults, while the rest is distributed around safes belonging to Barclays, HSBC and Standard Chartered.

Mike Cundy, director of security for G4S, which specialises in moving precious metals, told the Financial Times: ‘This would be a very big one – I can’t think of another case where we’ve moved that sort of thing.’

Meanwhile, a gold banker told the paper: ‘I’m not sure if the central bank realises the magnitude of the task ahead of them.’

Venezuela lies 15th in the table of gold owners, with 365.8 tonnes.