Maritime crude oil transportation – A split pickup and split delivery problem

The maritime oil tanker routing and scheduling problem is known to the literature since before 1950. In the presented problem, oil tankers transport crude oil from supply points to demand locations around the globe. The objective is to find ship routes, load sizes, as well as port arrival and departure times, in a way that minimizes transportation costs. We introduce a path flow model where paths are ship routes. Continuous variables distribute the cargo between the different routes. Multiple products are transported by a heterogeneous fleet of tankers. Pickup and delivery requirements are not paired to cargos beforehand and arbitrary split of amounts is allowed. Small realistic test instances can be solved with route pre-generation for this model. The results indicate possible simplifications and stimulate further research.

► We model the (multi commodity) crude oil tanker routing and scheduling problem. ► Special about the model is arbitrary split of pickup and delivery quantities. ► Pickup and delivery time windows do not form pairs for transportation. ► Quantity split and non-paired time windows show potential compared to fixed cargoes.