Iran says higher oil price needed for investment - report

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's OPEC governor said the price should increase to $70-80 to help boost investment, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Saturday, a day after he was quoted as saying OPEC was expected to reduce output further.

Mohammad Ali Khatibi also estimated compliance among OPEC members to earlier agreed production cuts at 85 percent in April, up from 81 percent in the previous month, IRIB said.

Even though crude has recovered in recent months to trade at $58 a barrel on Friday, the price is still sharply down from a peak of $147 in mid-2008.

"We believe that this price level will not lead to an increase in investment in producer countries and that therefore there is a need to raise price levels to $70-80 per barrel," IRIB quoted Khatibi as saying.

Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is a traditional price hawk in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The producer group, which next meets on May 28, has already agreed to reduce production since September by about 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 5 percent of world supply.

On May 1, a Reuters survey suggested that OPEC has made 84 percent of supply cutbacks promised since last year, one of its highest ever rates of adherence.

OPEC oil supply fell in April for an eighth consecutive month due to disruptions to Nigerian output and as members implemented the deal to prop up prices, the survey showed.

Supply from the 11 OPEC members bound by output targets declined to 25.52 million bpd from a revised 25.63 million bpd in March, according to the survey of oil firms, OPEC officials and analysts.

(For more on Reuters India, click in.reuters.com )