An operational planning model for petroleum products logistics under uncertainty

This paper shows how capacitated network may be used to analyze possible long-term transportation of oil derivatives by pipeline, truck, railway, and ship and reduce the distribution cost. It deals with the scheduling of a multi-product, multi-depot system receiving a number of petroleum products from different refineries and distributes them among several depots and market areas while the demand is an uncertain parameter. Depots typically operate independently and solely within their own territories. However, it may be beneficial to allow those depots to operate interdependently, particularly when the product supplies or network capacity is limited. It also discusses the issue of constraints in shipping oil to/from ports for export/import purposes.