Designing an oil supply chain network considering sustainable development paradigm and uncertainty

Abstract

This study proposes a multi-objective mathematical programming model to design an oil supply chain network at three levels: upstream, midstream and downstream. It includes oil wells, gas injection wells, production units, refineries, gas injection centers, distribution centers, export and import terminals. The proposed model optimizes all three economic, social and environmental goals at the same time. Drilling injection and production wells, transportation costs, production costs, gas injection center costs, as well as fixed and annual costs of refineries and distribution centers are all minimized in the economic dimension. The environmental dimension of sustainability reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while the social dimension of sustainability increases job opportunities. The optimization of associated petroleum gas injection operations into the reservoir is also taken into account in this study. The proposed model considers the uncertainty of critical parameters and employs a robust possibilistic hybrid approach to deal with it, as well as an interactive fuzzy approach to solve it. A case study in Iran is used to evaluate the suggested model's performance. In comparison to the single-objective economic model, the results of solving the model show that taking sustainability into account has reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased job opportunities. The crude oil extraction potential increases in each period when gas injection optimization and reservoir pressure are taken into account. Furthermore, the cost of the supply chain grows as the amount of uncertainty in the suggested model rises. As a result, the uncertainty of system parameters must be considered.