CAIRO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco informed the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Egypt's state oil company, in early October that it would halt the supply of refined oil products to Egypt, a government official told Reuters on Monday.

"Aramco informed the EGPC early this month of its inability to supply Egypt with shipments of petroleum products," the official said, without giving a timeline for the suspension or a reason.

Traders told Reuters last week that Egypt had not received October allocations of petroleum aid from Saudi Arabia, forcing its state oil buyer to rapidly increase tenders even amid a severe dollar shortage and growing arrears to oil producers.

The EGPC plans to allocate more than $500 million to purchase petroleum products and Egypt plans to launch some tenders to buy fuel needed for local consumption.

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; writing by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Adrian Croft)