A new application area of facility location problem - oil & gas gathering system

Facility location problem (FLP) is an important branch of operational research. The theoretical research of FLP is rapidly developing and is widely applied in various fields. However, FLP is failed to get enough attention in the optimization design of gathering system in the energy industry. Therefore, aiming at the oil and gas gathering system in the energy industry, the FLP classification is discussed, and accordingly the classification method for the optimization design of gathering system is developed. The relevance and difference between optimization design and FLP are demonstrated from the aspects of single-terminal location, multi-terminal location and terminal connections. The integral solution problem of gathering pipeline network is proposed, and it is worthy of attention for the researchers concerning the gathering system optimization and FLP.