Allocation And Route Optimization For Shuttle Tanker

FPSO and other drilling platforms are the main force of coastal oil production system. They are responsible for exploitation and processing. The system faces much more pressure as the need of oil increasing. In order to ensure the immediate transportation, people should solve platform technology and drilling technology as well as oil transportation technology.Oil transport system is the most important part to guarantee the high efficiency of oil production system. It is the key factor to connect the oil production system with oil storage place. As the main oil unloading tool for FPSO, shuttle tankers with drilling rigs, FPSO, oil storage place form the deep-sea oil transportation system. First of all, paper analyzes the deep-sea oil transportation system, such as the main factors that affect system. The paper analyzes factor such as:FPSO and shuttle tanker capacity constraints, the external environment, the diversity of the shuttle tanker and shuttle tankers calling restrictions. And then the problems that should be optimized have been proposed. The paper focus on three problems:the allocation of shuttle tankers, the optimized times for oil pickup in planning horizon and routing optimization for oil shuttle tankers optimization. A route optimization for shuttle tanker considering allocation in oil production system model has been proposed in order to solve these problems. The model aims at lower the total cost in system. The model is different from vehicle routing problem and its variation. For the problem has these characters:1) the oil in FPSO keeps producing; 2) times of picking up oil are considered while in routing selection. And this model solves the allocation of shuttle tanker and scheduling problems from the perspective of production. So this model is a NP-hard problem. It has value both in academic study and oil production in reality.In the end this paper uses the example of an example of existing FPSO and shuttle tanker as empirical analysis. And the of shuttle tanker allocation, routing problems and proper oil pickup times have been optimized in the system in Bohai bay respectively. The research results show that the larger shuttle tanker with reasonable number can lower total cost and the loss of oil in planning horizon although the loss is not the lowest. And more and more number of shuttle tankers will not lower the loss of oil’s quantity and may add the total cost. This paper gives support for decision makers in oil transportation system when considering the allocation for shuttle tankers.