diff --git a/cmd/buildah/commit.go b/cmd/buildah/commit.go
index 9ea0c3704..c6def14df 100644
--- a/cmd/buildah/commit.go
+++ b/cmd/buildah/commit.go
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ type commitInputOptions struct {
 	signBy             string
 	squash             bool
 	tlsVerify          bool
+	encryptionKeys     []string
+	encryptLayers      []int
 }
 
 func init() {
@@ -59,6 +61,8 @@ func init() {
 
 	flags.StringVar(&opts.authfile, "authfile", auth.GetDefaultAuthFile(), "path of the authentication file. Use REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE environment variable to override")
 	flags.StringVar(&opts.blobCache, "blob-cache", "", "assume image blobs in the specified directory will be available for pushing")
+	flags.StringSliceVar(&opts.encryptionKeys, "encryption-key", nil, "key with the encryption protocol to use needed to encrypt the image (e.g. jwe:/path/to/key.pem)")
+	flags.IntSliceVar(&opts.encryptLayers, "encrypt-layer", nil, "layers to encrypt, 0-indexed layer indices with support for negative indexing (e.g. 0 is the first layer, -1 is the last layer). If not defined, will encrypt all layers if encryption-key flag is specified")
 
 	if err := flags.MarkHidden("blob-cache"); err != nil {
 		panic(fmt.Sprintf("error marking blob-cache as hidden: %v", err))
@@ -168,6 +172,11 @@ func commitCmd(c *cobra.Command, args []string, iopts commitInputOptions) error
 	// Add builder identity information.
 	builder.SetLabel(buildah.BuilderIdentityAnnotation, buildah.Version)
 
+	encConfig, encLayers, err := getEncryptConfig(iopts.encryptionKeys, iopts.encryptLayers)
+	if err != nil {
+		return errors.Wrapf(err, "unable to obtain encryption config")
+	}
+
 	options := buildah.CommitOptions{
 		PreferredManifestType: format,
 		Compression:           compress,
@@ -179,6 +188,8 @@ func commitCmd(c *cobra.Command, args []string, iopts commitInputOptions) error
 		BlobDirectory:         iopts.blobCache,
 		OmitTimestamp:         iopts.omitTimestamp,
 		SignBy:                iopts.signBy,
+		OciEncryptConfig:      encConfig,
+		OciEncryptLayers:      encLayers,
 	}
 	if !iopts.quiet {
 		options.ReportWriter = os.Stderr
diff --git a/commit.go b/commit.go
index b919ba7fa..5e08b8345 100644
--- a/commit.go
+++ b/commit.go
@@ -89,6 +89,17 @@ type CommitOptions struct {
 	// RetryDelay is how long to wait before retrying a commit attempt to a
 	// registry.
 	RetryDelay time.Duration
+	// OciEncryptConfig when non-nil indicates that an image should be encrypted.
+	// The encryption options is derived from the construction of EncryptConfig object.
+	// Note: During initial encryption process of a layer, the resultant digest is not known
+	// during creation, so newDigestingReader has to be set with validateDigest = false
+	OciEncryptConfig *encconfig.EncryptConfig
+	// OciEncryptLayers represents the list of layers to encrypt.
+	// If nil, don't encrypt any layers.
+	// If non-nil and len==0, denotes encrypt all layers.
+	// integers in the slice represent 0-indexed layer indices, with support for negative
+	// indexing. i.e. 0 is the first layer, -1 is the last (top-most) layer.
+	OciEncryptLayers *[]int
 }
 
 // PushOptions can be used to alter how an image is copied somewhere.
@@ -284,7 +295,9 @@ func (b *Builder) Commit(ctx context.Context, dest types.ImageReference, options
 	// Check if the base image is already in the destination and it's some kind of local
 	// storage.  If so, we can skip recompressing any layers that come from the base image.
 	exportBaseLayers := true
-	if transport, destIsStorage := dest.Transport().(is.StoreTransport); destIsStorage && b.FromImageID != "" {
+	if transport, destIsStorage := dest.Transport().(is.StoreTransport); destIsStorage && options.OciEncryptConfig != nil {
+		return imgID, nil, "", errors.New("unable to use local storage with image encryption")
+	} else if destIsStorage && b.FromImageID != "" {
 		if baseref, err := transport.ParseReference(b.FromImageID); baseref != nil && err == nil {
 			if img, err := transport.GetImage(baseref); img != nil && err == nil {
 				logrus.Debugf("base image %q is already present in local storage, no need to copy its layers", b.FromImageID)
@@ -333,7 +346,7 @@ func (b *Builder) Commit(ctx context.Context, dest types.ImageReference, options
 	}
 
 	var manifestBytes []byte
-	if manifestBytes, err = retryCopyImage(ctx, policyContext, maybeCachedDest, maybeCachedSrc, dest, "push", getCopyOptions(b.store, options.ReportWriter, nil, systemContext, "", false, options.SignBy, nil, nil, nil), options.MaxRetries, options.RetryDelay); err != nil {
+	if manifestBytes, err = retryCopyImage(ctx, policyContext, maybeCachedDest, maybeCachedSrc, dest, "push", getCopyOptions(b.store, options.ReportWriter, nil, systemContext, "", false, options.SignBy, options.OciEncryptLayers, options.OciEncryptConfig, nil), options.MaxRetries, options.RetryDelay); err != nil {
 		return imgID, nil, "", errors.Wrapf(err, "error copying layers and metadata for container %q", b.ContainerID)
 	}
 	// If we've got more names to attach, and we know how to do that for
diff --git a/tests/commit.bats b/tests/commit.bats
index 6bf6010c5..d03da42b7 100644
--- a/tests/commit.bats
+++ b/tests/commit.bats
@@ -174,3 +174,29 @@ load helpers
   run_buildah commit --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword busyboxc docker://localhost:5000/commit/busybox
   run_buildah from --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --name fromdocker --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword docker://localhost:5000/commit/busybox
 }
+
+@test "commit encrypted local oci image" {
+  _prefetch busybox
+  mkdir ${TESTDIR}/tmp
+  openssl genrsa -out ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem 1024
+  openssl rsa -in ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem -pubout > ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pub
+  run_buildah from --quiet --pull=false --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json busybox
+  cid=$output
+  run_buildah commit --iidfile /dev/null --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --encryption-key jwe:${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pub -q $cid oci:${TESTDIR}/tmp/busybox_enc
+  imgtype  -show-manifest oci:${TESTDIR}/tmp/busybox_enc | grep "+encrypted"
+  rm -rf ${TESTDIR}/tmp
+}
+
+
+@test "commit oci encrypt to registry" {
+  _prefetch busybox
+  mkdir ${TESTDIR}/tmp
+  openssl genrsa -out ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem 1024
+  openssl rsa -in ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem -pubout > ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pub
+  run_buildah from --quiet --pull=false --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json busybox
+  cid=$output
+  run_buildah commit --iidfile /dev/null --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --encryption-key jwe:${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pub -q $cid docker://localhost:5000/buildah/busybox_encrypted:latest
+  # this test, just checks the ability to commit an image to a registry
+  # there is no good way to test the details of the image unless with ./buildah pull, test will be in pull.bats
+  rm -rf ${TESTDIR}/tmp
+}
diff --git a/tests/pull.bats b/tests/pull.bats
index 51f179f7f..dc0ce69ce 100644
--- a/tests/pull.bats
+++ b/tests/pull.bats
@@ -204,3 +204,23 @@ load helpers
 
   rm -rf ${TESTDIR}/tmp
 }
+
+@test "pull encrypted registry image from commit" {
+ _prefetch busybox
+  mkdir ${TESTDIR}/tmp
+  openssl genrsa -out ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem 1024
+  openssl rsa -in ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem -pubout > ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pub
+  run_buildah from --quiet --pull=false --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json busybox
+  cid=$output
+  run_buildah commit --iidfile /dev/null --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --encryption-key jwe:${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pub -q $cid docker://localhost:5000/buildah/busybox_encrypted:latest
+
+  # Try to pull encrypted image without key should fail
+  run_buildah 1 pull --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword docker://localhost:5000/buildah/busybox_encrypted:latest
+  # Try to pull encrypted image with wrong key should fail
+  run_buildah 1 pull --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword --decryption-key ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey2.pem docker://localhost:5000/buildah/busybox_encrypted:latest
+  # Providing the right key should succeed
+  run_buildah pull --signature-policy ${TESTSDIR}/policy.json --tls-verify=false --creds testuser:testpassword --decryption-key ${TESTDIR}/tmp/mykey.pem docker://localhost:5000/buildah/busybox_encrypted:latest
+  run_buildah rmi localhost:5000/buildah/busybox_encrypted:latest
+
+  rm -rf ${TESTDIR}/tmp
+}