The integrated network model of pipeline, sea and road distribution of petroleum product

Abstract

Nigeria ranks high among the community of oil producers both in the world. It is, therefore, paradoxical that Nigeria, with such profile in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) statistics finds it difficult to optimize its supply distribution while spending so much money on transportation and distribution. This paper thus reviews the petroleum product supply and distribution systems in the country. Thus, we develop a single period, single product deterministic mathematical model to effectively distribute the product to the end user through the most effective channel to the interest of the economy of the country. In our model, we first consider a perfect condition in the petroleum industry irrespective of the production crises and conflicts like pipeline vandalism, communal instability. We then consider different scnearios that presumes several breakdown cases in pipeline connection to anaylze the survivability of the network of petroleum distribution.