Site Selection Study for Refinery Using GIS and Logit, Probit Models

Abstract

One of the most important steps in establishing industrial plants, is location studies for determining the best location of industries. Because of the long run impact of this decision, and it’s significant impact on the economy, environment and society. Thanks to vast oil reserves, Iran is the fourth oil producer in the world. Insufficiency of refining capacity and increasing domestic demand for oil products, have made Iran an importer of oil product like gasoline. Running petroleum production at full capacity is very important and in this way the expansion of existing refineries or building new plants (construction of oil refineries) are appropriate plans ahead. Given the high costs of constructing oil refineries in the country by the state-owned oil industry, building a new refinery is too important in order to choose mechanism that minimizes the total costs. So Determining the best and most suitable place for building a new refinery is very important. This study using both GIS and econometric likelihood linear models like logit and probit seeks to determine the optimal location for establishing an oil refinery in various geographical areas of the country. In this study, some geographical criteria such as slope and elevation of land are used in the GIS section then all areas is studied and the areas that had the initial condition have been screened. Finally, using the logit and probit models, the suitable areas were analyzed based on economic criteria and final ranking has been done.

Keywords

• site selection
• boolean model
• geographical information system
• oil refinery production
• logit and probit model