The number of light-duty vehicles running on natural gas will more than double over the next decade to 39.8 million traveling on roads worldwide, according to a US report published on Thursday.

The projection was made by US consulting firm Navigant in a report obtained by daily newspaper the Houston Chronicle. In it, researchers forecasted the growth of natural gas vehicles in China and Western European countries will be more rapid than that in North America.

"North America, despite the excitement surrounding newly available natural gas, is likely to remain a comparatively small market," the report says.

Navigant forecasts 138,177 light-duty natural gas vehicles will be sold in North America in 2023, compared to 1.9 million in the Asia-Pacific market.

The company also forecasts that the fueling stations and other infrastructure to support natural gas vehicles in North America will double by 2023.

However, natural gas will continue to have a modest market share compared to gasoline and diesel in 2023, fueling just 2.6 percent of the cars and light-duty trucks on the road, the report says.

Worldwide, there were 14.8 million natural gas vehicles by 2011, led by Iran with 2.86 million. The Asia-Pacific region leads the world with 6.8 million natural gas vehicles, followed by Latin America with 4.2 million vehicles, according to figures provided by Wikipedia.