Saudi Aramco, ADNOC raise Japan oil stockpiles in October

Saudi Aramco and the United Arab Emirates together owned about 13.8 million barrels of crude oil by the end of October in Japan’s semi-national stockpiles, up by 2.2 million barrels from the previous month, according to data from Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

Japanese government lends crude storage capacity for free to state-owned Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), under which they can store up to about 14.47 million barrels.

There was no clear breakdown for barrels between the two companies.

In return for providing free storage, Japan gets a priority claim on stockpiles in case of emergency and treats them as semi-national inventory, counting half of the barrels as part of the national strategic crude reserves.