CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s debts to international oil and gas companies rose to $3.58 billion by the end of September, the oil minister said, from about $3.2 billion six months ago.

The oil ministry said last year that it aimed to reduce its arrears to foreign oil and gas companies operating in the country to $2.5 billion by the end of 2015 and pay them off completely by the end of 2016.

But the debts have risen significantly from about $3 billion at the end of last year.

(Reporting Abdel Rahman Adel, Writing by Lin Noueihed, Editing by Susan Fenton)