¹University of Stirling, Stirling, UK

Correspondence: J Bowers, Department of Management and Organization, The Faculty of Management, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, UK. E-mail: manorg@stir.ac.uk

Received November 1999; Accepted August 2000.

Abstract

New oil fields are being developed in deeper water where conventional production systems are impractical. One alternative is the floating production, storage and offloading system: oil is extracted and stored on a moored, floating tanker while a shuttle tanker transports the oil between the field and the refinery port. However, when the weather is too rough, mooring and offloading has to be suspended. If there is inadequate storage capacity, oil production also stops, resulting in a costly interruption to the revenue flow. Simulation experiments with different design configurations can identify the economic optimum that minimises the financial impact of the weather on the operation. However, not all of the uncertainties can be captured completely in a quantitative manner and sensitivity analyses suggest that a more robust configuration is a better option than the simple optimum.