Operational scheduling of oil products pipeline with intermediate event occurrences

TL;DR

This paper enhances pipeline scheduling models by integrating operational challenges and incident response capabilities, aiming to improve decision-making in oil product distribution.

Contribution

It introduces modifications to existing MILP models to incorporate operational flexibility, incident handling, and integration with other transportation modes.

Findings

Improved MILP models respond better to operational incidents.

Enhanced scheduling flexibility for oil pipeline operations.

Better integration of pipeline with other transportation methods.

Abstract

Oil products are the main source of energy in the world today. Distribution of these products is one of the main issues in the industry. The main tools for this work are pipelines, and along with it, railways, shipping and roads are also used. Optimal planning of pipelines is an example of decision-making problem and was the focus of many researchers in the past years. The use of mixed integer linear programming (MILP) is one of the efficient methods to solve this problem. However, models still ignore important operational challenges. Vulnerability to deal with incidents as well as lack of attention to other transportation methods as a complement to the pipeline are among the weak points of the existing models. In this research, we intend to facilitate the decision-making process for experts in the field of distribution of oil products. For this purpose, we must improve the existing MILP methods and modify them for use in the real operational environment in such a way that sufficient flexibility, the possibility of responding to incidents, and the ability to revise the program are added to them.