Comparative study of crude oil transportation

Abstract

This comparative study applied the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to select the most suitable crude oil transportation methods that will align with the company's policy. The model enabled comparison of both quantitative and qualitative parameters involved in this decision making, which include cost factor, safety and reliability issue, environmental impact, and community acceptance survey. There are two transportation options to transfer crude oil from production station to the depot. First is the current practice using road tankers to carry crude oil using public highway. Current operation has many difficulties such as not reliable during flooding period, not being able to run at night time and also receiving complaints from nearby neighborhood. Hence, there was a proposal to install pipeline instead. However, high investment cost is required for pipeline installation and the company requires a reasonable judgment in order to sanction the project. From this thesis study, it was determined that pipeline installation is the most suitable transportation option based on the associated criterions stated above. The overall priority of pipeline installation option from Expert Choice program is 59% over that of 41% from road tanker method. The result was related to the company's safety policy to consider safety and reliability as first priority. The most critical parameter is the cost factor importance level since if varied more than +17.5%, the decision outcome will prefer the other option.