Optimizing Helicopter Transport of Oil Rig Crews at Petrobras

Petrobras produces nearly 90 percent of Brazil's oil at about 80 offshore oil platforms. It transports approximately 1,900 employees daily between these platforms and four mainland bases, using more than 40 helicopters that vary in capacity, operating costs, and performance characteristics. Eac...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interfaces (Providence) 2010-09, Vol.40 (5), p.408-416
Main Authors: Menezes, Fernanda, Porto, Oscar, Reis, Marcelo L., Moreno, Lorenza, de Aragão, Marcus Poggi, Uchoa, Eduardo, Abeledo, Hernán, do Nascimento, Nelci Carvalho
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air transport
Airports
Brazil
column generation
Cost control
Cost minimization
Departure time
Flight crews
Flight time
helicopter scheduling
Helicopter transportation
Helicopters
Integer programming
Latin America
Logistics
Management
Mathematical optimization
Methods
Modelling
Oil industry
Oil rigs
Operating costs
Optimization
Passengers
Petroleum industry
Petroleum refineries
Petroleum workers
Production management
Safety
Scheduling
Scheduling (Management)
Scheduling algorithms
Staff
Studies
Transportation
Transportation demand
Variables
Vehicular flight
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Summary:Petrobras produces nearly 90 percent of Brazil's oil at about 80 offshore oil platforms. It transports approximately 1,900 employees daily between these platforms and four mainland bases, using more than 40 helicopters that vary in capacity, operating costs, and performance characteristics. Each day, flight planners must select the helicopter routes and schedules that satisfy passenger demands. We developed a system that requires less than one hour to generate optimized flight plans that meet operational guidelines, improve travel safety, and minimize operating costs. By using this system, Petrobras reduced its number of offshore landings by 18 percent, total flight time by 8 percent, and flight costs by 14 percent, resulting in annual savings of more than $20 million. Our optimization model is a large-scale mixed integer program that generalizes prior helicopter routing models. We designed a column-generation algorithm that exploits the problem structure to overcome its computational difficulties. As part of the solution method, we use a network flow model to optimally assign passengers to selected routes.
ISSN:0092-2102
2644-0865
1526-551X
2644-0873
DOI:10.1287/inte.1100.0517