Abu Dhabi has agreed to nearly double a strategic crude stockpile in Japan to 1 million kilolitres as the nation’s demand for oil grows in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, Wam reported.

The expansion would increase the oil stockpile at Kagoshima to 6.28 million barrels of oil. The current stockpile of 3.77 million barrels of crude was agreed in 2009, when that amount was equivalent to one day of Japanese demand. Since the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi triple meltdown, the shutdown of most of Japan’s nuclear reactors has fuelled a rise in hydrocarbon imports that the government says is costing an extra $36 billion a year.

The stockpile increase came at the end of a visit to Japan by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, that was accompanied by a raft of agreements in fields from medicine to aviation. Masdar, the government-owned clean energy company, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the state export agency, to finance and work on wind, solar and other renewables projects.