Optimal planning of liquefied natural gas deliveries. (August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Al-Haidous, Sara; Msakni, Mohamed Kais; Haouari, Mohamed
• Is Part Of: Transportation research. Volume 69(2016)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 90
• Publication Date: 2016-08
• Subjects: Maritime transportation -- LNG supply chain -- Annual delivery plan -- Arc-flow models; Transportation -- Periodicals; Transportation -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; 388.011
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trc.2016.05.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0968-090X

Abstract

Highlights: We investigate the problem of designing an annual delivery plan for an LNG producer. We describe a novel exact arc-flow formulation. The proposed formulation accommodates several practical constraints. Computational experiments were carried out on a set of real data. Optimal solutions for large-scale instances can be provided in a reasonable CPU time. Abstract: We investigate the problem of designing an optimal annual delivery plan for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). This problem requires determining the long-term cargo delivery dates and the assignment of vessels to the cargoes while accommodating several constraints, including berth availability, liquefaction terminal inventory, planned maintenance, and bunkering requirements. We describe a novel mixed-integer programming formulation that captures important industry requirements and constraints with the objective of minimizing the vessel fleet size. A peculiar property of the proposed formulation is that it includes a polynomial number of variables and constraints and is, in our experience, computationally tractable for large problem instances using a commercial solver. Extensive computational runs demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model for real instances provided by a major energy company that involve up to 118 cargoes and a 373-day planning horizon.