Modeling and Simulation of Crude Oil Sea–River Transshipment System in China’s Yangtze River Basin

Abstract

China’s Yangtze River Basin has an increasingly strong demand for crude oil. As a seaborne import port for crude oil, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port is under pressure to undertake the transshipment of crude oil to various oil terminals in the Yangtze River Basin. To alleviate the stress of crude oil transportation in Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the port operator proposed the crude oil sea–river transshipment scheme in Nantong Port. Therefore, this paper aims to verify the feasibility of this scheme. We used the discrete event system modeling and entity relationship diagram method to construct the hierarchical and concept models of the Yangtze River Basin’s crude oil sea–river transportation system. Furthermore, we developed corresponding simulation modules on the Witness platform and carried out a simulation experiment of the crude oil sea–river transfer scheme. In the experiment, we analyzed the influence of the transshipment ratio on berth utilization, waiting time, and sailing time of other ports by adjusting the parameter of the transshipment ratio. The experimental results show that when the transshipment rate reaches 100%, the utilization rates of loading and unloading berth in Nantong Port are 4% and 13%, respectively, which evidences that Nantong Port has transshipment potential. At the same time, the simulation experiment’s statistical indicators, such as the utilization rate of oil berths, the queuing time of oil tankers, and the sailing time, not only confirm the feasibility of the crude oil sea–river transshipment scheme of Nantong Port but also confirm that the scheme is helpful to improve crude oil transportation efficiency. The simulation results benefit the port operation decision, and the established model and simulation module can be encapsulated and reused.