A Multi-Criteria Decision Making for Location Selection in the Niger Delta Using Fuzzy TOPSIS Approach

Making an informed decision with regards to a suitable business location or site selection for organizations is becoming challenging for business decision makers globally; and even more challenging in business environment that are saddled with uncertainties. The continues raise of multiple criteria variation of site preferences has also necessitated the application of advanced decision making techniques in handling most business operations. In the light of this, TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) approach to decision making in suitable site selection was used in this study to proffer an ideal location for a residential base camp for a multinational oil company (MNOC). A decision matrix of 16 towns was developed and the criteria for selection of suitable location for residential base camp include availability of land, expansion possibilities, logistics cost, and proximity to oil and gas facilities and natural disaster (flooding). The suitable site location selection was achieved by analyzing the weighted matrix criterion and relative closeness coefficient to the positive ideal solution and the distance from the negative ideal solution. The study found that the positive ideal solution for the site location is Erema represented by code (B3), followed by Amah (B2) and Obiozimini (B12) composed of all best values attainable for the criteria used in the study. The study provided an insight into MCDM for residential base camp location selection for companies when considering suitable location for residential or any other business purposes in the OML 58, Niger Delta, Nigeria.