Industrial and oil ports: case studies and theoretical approaches

Industrial and oil ports have been mainly developed, after the Second World War, with the birth of large industrial systems and they established during the second half of 20th century. Large ports are built close to the industrial areas. Heavy and oil industrial sectors need huge loading capacity, direct connections without constraints on shapes, lengths and unit of loads. The iron and steel industry, the petrochemical, the power plants, etc., determine the birth of the so-called second-generation ports, as defined by UNCTAD. The technical characteristics are the following: large yards close to the quays, oil terminals with sophisticated security systems, starting points for oil pipelines and power lines. The paradigm of the second-generation ports is: firstly, the industrial plant was settled and, then, the port was built for serving the industrial plant. The ships that arrive at the industrial ports are specialized. The oil tankers are born, with the subsequent variations of hull and technology, they evolve up to the LNG ships. The economic system is therefore defined in a simple way: eliminating the distances between the heavy industry plants and the loading/unloading points that allow international connections. The economic model has not been enough studied in its basic components given by the flows of goods from the port to the industries and vice versa. The paper is articulated into two main parts. The first one presents a critical analysis of some representative case studies of industrial and oil ports for each continental area. The second one presents the proposed theoretical approaches, based on Transport System Models (TSMs) introducing the multi-modal approach considering that in the examined ports there is a pipeline network other than a road network. The multi-modal TSM explains the relationship of industrial and oil ports with trade partners who have built their cargo transformation facilities in the closer industrial area. The approach can be extended to the sea and land networks used for the oil transport. The work may be considered a step able to open several directions to study the characteristics of oil and petrochemical ports and their connection with the industrial areas by means of TSMs. The use of TSMs allows transport planners to integrate industrial ports into land development plans and researchers to investigate the structure of TSMs applied to freight transport during which physical and economic (value modification) changes occur in goods.