BUENOS AIRES, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant Gazprom hopes to occupy up to 10% of the U.S. natural gas market in four to five years, a deputy CEO said on Thursday.

"I think 4-5 years is enough to reach a share of 10% on the gas market in the U.S.," Alexander Medvedev, who also leads Gazprom's export arm, Gazprom Export, told journalists in Buenos Aires, where he is attending the 24th World Gas Conference.

The United States is the world's largest gas consumer. Gazprom started gas deliveries to the U.S. on October 1, when its subsidiary Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA, Inc. announced the start of natural gas sales and marketing in North America.

The subsidiary's president, John Hattenberger, said then that the company has signed "deals giving us more than 350 million cubic feet per day of physical supplies at several different locations all across the U.S., for the next three to seven years."

Gazprom affiliates also export to North America liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia's Far East.