Saudi Aramco to raise crude oil at its Japan storage by 1.9 mln barrels

State-owned Saudi Aramco will increase its storage capacity in Japan by 1.9 million barrels of crude (300,000 kiloliters) on Sep. 13, Reuters reported Monday, citing an unnamed official source at the Japanese trade ministry.

The move comes as Japan raises the crude storage capacity that it lends to Aramco at Okinawa by 30 percent to 8.2 million barrels, starting this month, based on a previous agreement between the two countries.

The agreement allows Saudi Aramco to use the storage capacity at Okinawa free of charge for commercial use, in exchange of prioritizing crude supplies to Japan in an emergency.

Saudi Aramco’s current Japanese crude storage stands at 6.3 million barrels (1 million kiloliters).

As Japan has a priority claim on the stockpiles, it treats the crude oil stored by Aramco as quasi-government oil reserves, counting half of the barrels as national crude reserves.