The Egyptian Government in the last month of 2015, witnessed a rise in the outstanding debts owed to international oil companies.

Estimated to be $2.7 billion in October, the debt increased to $3 billion at the end of December, according to Egypt's Petroleum Minister, Tarek El Molla, who revealed this in an interview on Sunday. He however, did not giving more details about the reason behind the rise.

Meanwhile, in September the Ministry had announced government’s plan to reduce the debt to $2.5 billion by the end of 2015 and finish the payment by the end of 2016. While delays in the payment had daunted investment, moves to increase the price for domestic production and settle the debt had brought about new deals which were signed in 2015.

At the end of November, Egypt’s reserves had nearly cut up to $16.4 billion. Once an energy exporter, the country had become a net importer due to decreasing oil and gas production as well as rising consumption.

According to Reuters, Egypt is struggling to fast-track production at recent finds to cover up its energy gap as quickly as possible.