* Drop in prices will not affect exploration portfolio-Brown
* Shell targets $15 billion of asset sales in 2014-2015 (Adds quotes, background, shares)
By Rania El Gamal
ABU DHABI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell will not increase its target to sell $15 billion of assets in2014-2015 in the face of lower oil prices, the oil company'supstream director said on Tuesday.
The Anglo-Dutch major will also maintain its current oil andgas exploration portfolio, Andrew Brown said.
Global oil prices have dropped by around 30 percent over thepast four months to about $80 a barrel, putting pressureon the balance sheets of oil companies already scrambling to cutspending to boost cash flows and profits.
"We do have a continuous need to recycle our portfolio.Fifteen billion (dollars) is still only a few percent of ourtotal assets and we haven't got any plans to refresh thattarget," Brown told reporters.
Shell has so far sold $12 billion of assets this year,putting it on track to hit the target of $15 billion by the endof next year.
The decline in oil prices has also raised questions over theviability of some exploration projects in recent weeks. ButShell's exploration portfolio remains on track, Brown said.
"We test all our projects between $70-$110 a barrel, so thecurrent oil price is in the range of oil prices that we test ourprojects, so this is business as usual in terms of evaluation ofproject robustness."
The sharp drop in oil prices is set to hit oil majors'results in the fourth quarter, after it had only a limitedimpact in the third quarter when oil prices averaged above $100a barrel.
Shell shares were down about 1.6 percent at 2199.5 pence by1140 GMT in London. (Writing by Ron Bousso; editing by Jason Neely and Pravin Char)
