(Adds plans for drilling rigs, production data for first 9-moof 2016)
OSLO, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Norway's oil and energy ministryhas approved a hike in the 2016 oil output quota of the NorthSea Troll field to 46.5 million barrels from 41.7 million,giving it the highest output level since 2009, documentsobtained by Reuters showed on Friday.
Field operator Statoil requested an increase onbehalf of the license partners in September, and the ministrygranted it on Nov. 4, a letter from the ministry showed.
Troll produced 33.2 million barrels of oil during the firstnine months of 2016, according to data from Norway's PetroleumDirectorate.
The field is a major supplier of natural gas to Europe, andthe permitted oil output is tightly regulated to prevent a dropin output from the gas reservoir.
Other partners in the field are Norway's state-owned Petoro,Shell, Total and ConocoPhillips.
Separately, the ministry has approved Statoil's request toreduce the number of drilling rigs working on wells at the Trollfield to three from four in 2017.
Statoil has said it would still be able to do the sameamount of drilling work as in 2015 and 2016 due to increasedefficiency.
The company was not immediately available to comment onTroll output levels in 2017. (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen and Nerijus Adomaitis, editing byTerje Solsvik)
