diff --git a/src/main/java/picard/cmdline/CommandLineProgram.java b/src/main/java/picard/cmdline/CommandLineProgram.java
index d37242a610..9b8f880c80 100644
--- a/src/main/java/picard/cmdline/CommandLineProgram.java
+++ b/src/main/java/picard/cmdline/CommandLineProgram.java
@@ -134,6 +134,9 @@ public abstract class CommandLineProgram {
     @Argument(doc="Google Genomics API client_secrets.json file path.", common = true)
     public String GA4GH_CLIENT_SECRETS="client_secrets.json";
 
+    @Argument(doc="Google project for access to 'requester pays' buckets and objects.", common = true, optional = true)
+    public String REQUESTER_PAYS_PROJECT = null;
+
     @ArgumentCollection(doc="Special Arguments that have meaning to the argument parsing system.  " +
                 "It is unlikely these will ever need to be accessed by the command line program")
     public Object specialArgumentsCollection = useLegacyParser() ?
@@ -238,6 +241,16 @@ public int instanceMain(final String[] argv) {
         if (System.getProperty("ga4gh.client_secrets") == null) {
           System.setProperty("ga4gh.client_secrets", GA4GH_CLIENT_SECRETS);
         }
+
+        if (PathProvider.GCS.isAvailable){
+            if (System.getProperty("google_project_requester_pays") == null &&
+                REQUESTER_PAYS_PROJECT != null) {
+                System.setProperty("google_project_requester_pays", REQUESTER_PAYS_PROJECT);
+            }
+            Log.getInstance(this.getClass()).info(
+                    String.format("Will use google project %s for gcs requests.", System.getProperty("google_project_requester_pays")));
+        }
+
         SamReaderFactory.setDefaultValidationStringency(VALIDATION_STRINGENCY);
 
         // Set the compression level everywhere we can think of
diff --git a/src/main/java/picard/nio/GoogleStorageUtils.java b/src/main/java/picard/nio/GoogleStorageUtils.java
index 1e5f7c2d39..353fbcbebf 100644
--- a/src/main/java/picard/nio/GoogleStorageUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/picard/nio/GoogleStorageUtils.java
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@
 
 package picard.nio;
 
-
 import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;
 import com.google.cloud.storage.contrib.nio.CloudStorageConfiguration;
 import com.google.cloud.storage.contrib.nio.CloudStorageFileSystemProvider;
@@ -50,19 +49,20 @@
 class GoogleStorageUtils {
 
     public static void initialize() {
-        // requester pays support is currently not configured
-        CloudStorageFileSystemProvider.setDefaultCloudStorageConfiguration(GoogleStorageUtils.getCloudStorageConfiguration(20, null));
+        final String google_project = System.getProperty("google_project_requester_pays");
+
+        CloudStorageFileSystemProvider.setDefaultCloudStorageConfiguration(GoogleStorageUtils.getCloudStorageConfiguration(20, google_project));
         CloudStorageFileSystemProvider.setStorageOptions(GoogleStorageUtils.setGenerousTimeouts(StorageOptions.newBuilder()).build());
     }
 
     /** The config we want to use. **/
-    private static CloudStorageConfiguration getCloudStorageConfiguration(int maxReopens, String requesterProject) {
-        CloudStorageConfiguration.Builder builder = CloudStorageConfiguration.builder()
+    private static CloudStorageConfiguration getCloudStorageConfiguration(final int maxReopens, final String requesterProject) {
+        final CloudStorageConfiguration.Builder builder = CloudStorageConfiguration.builder()
                 // if the channel errors out, re-open up to this many times
                 .maxChannelReopens(maxReopens);
         if (!Strings.isNullOrEmpty(requesterProject)) {
             // enable requester pays and indicate who pays
-            builder = builder.autoDetectRequesterPays(true).userProject(requesterProject);
+            builder.autoDetectRequesterPays(true).userProject(requesterProject);
         }
 
         // this causes the gcs filesystem to treat files that end in a / as a directory