Periodic supply vessel planning under demand and weather uncertainty

Abstract

We solve a periodic supply vessel planning problem under demand and weather uncertainty, arising in offshore of oil and gas production. Our study is motivated by the case of the Norwegian energy operator Equinor which supplied us with data. The aim is to determine an optimal fleet composition and a least-cost vessel schedule under uncertain demand at the installations and uncertain weather conditions. We present a methodology incorporating a metaheuristic within a discrete-event simulation model which, applied iteratively for the increasing values of reliability level parameters, yields a vessel schedule of least expected cost.

Keywords:

• Supply vessel planning
• offshore logistics
• uncertainty
• reliable vessel schedules
• metaheuristic
• discrete-event simulation
• recourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.