The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday that the world's largest oil & gas producers are facing unprecedented pressure to reduce their dependence on energy revenues, due toadvances infuel efficiency and electric vehicles may weaken demand and causeserious impact on their current financial situation.

Moreover, it also gave warning that failure to act or diversification of income sources would exacerbate the risks faced by producer economies and global markets.

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said: "I think the development model of these countries needs to be fundamentally changed, more than at any other time in recent history."

 Structural factors, such as the prosperity in shale oil production in the United States because of its market share in supply from competitors such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, and efforts to reduce fossil fuel use to mitigate climate change in demand, have put oil producers under budgetary pressure.

Birol said that oil & gas revenues in these countries averaged about $1,800 a year per capita at $80 a barrel. However, with the emergence of shale and the development of demand for new technologies and efficiency, that number could fall by 30% to $1250 by 2030.

"When we examine these countries, they get more than 70% of government revenue from oil & gas on average," he said. “These countries are under pressure from price, oil exports and population growth, whichwe think it's quite different from the past.”

The special report of the International Energy Agency attaches great importance to producers whose oil & gas account for at least one third of all exports and whose revenues account for at least one third of total fiscal revenue.