When oil owned and commercially traded by an exporting country is stored in an importing country in exchange for first drawing rights by the host country in times of emergency, that process is known as ‘joint oil stockpiling’. It can thus be classified as both commercial and strategic storage, offering benefits to both parties. The first Middle East (ME)–Northeast Asia (NEA) joint stockpiling deal was concluded in 2006 between Kuwait and South Korea. Since then there have been several similar agreements by which the national oil companies (NOCs) of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE have stored crude in in South Korea and Japan. An accord between the UAE and India, concluded in December 2016, is the most recent example.
