BUENOS AIRES. Oct 7 (Interfax) - Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom , has called on gas sector companies to "combine efforts to meet challenges the industry is facing and lay groundwork for further development."

"Gazprom actively takes part in many joint initiatives of gas producing countries. In particular, Gazprom actively supports the activities of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum," Miller said in his speech to the World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires.

"However, coordination of activities among major gas exporters is not enough. Further integration of efforts made by natural gas market stakeholders is needed. Despite the obvious benefits of natural gas compared to other fuels, one should not think that the role of gas in the global energy balance is guaranteed," he said.

"We believe that all of us who are interested in developing the natural gas industry, should be more active in shaping the world energy development model. So far, the main goal pushed forward by some politicians amount to nothing more than just a decrease in hydrocarbons consumption. Meanwhile, millions of our consumers will be at the mercy of a costly model of future energy consumption, a model that they will have to pay for," he said.

"At the same time, calculations prove that a high demand for an environmentally friendly economy may be reached without prejudice to hydrocarbon energy, but owing to it. Thus, replacement of nearly half of the existing coal-fired power generating facilities in Europe with up-to-date gas-fired combined-cycle power stations will cut