Know more about the P Padmanabhan, the new NRL MD

NRL new MD P Padmanabhan

HE is a hardcore technocrat and workaholic. He also loves watching an India-Pakistan cricket match as an avid cricket enthusiast and also spends time in the tennis court. He loves music, reading and exploring new destinations on spare time. Meet P Padmanabhan, the new managing director of Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL), who succeeded Dipak Chakravorty who retired on March 31.
How will this National Institute of Technology, Trichy chemical engineering graduate will steer...
the PSU in his new role of the PSU? No doubt it will be a daunting task for Padmanabhan but his vast experience in the realm will prove handy in handling the affairs of this profit making PSU in northeastern state of Assam.
Before joining NRL, Padmanabhan was the Executive Director (Refineries Coordination) of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), where he was in charge of coordination among the group refineries of BPCL, said an official statement. BPCL is NRL's holding company with major equity of 61.65 percent.
Padmanabhan's leadership acumen came to the fore when worked as the task force leader for finalising BPCL’s future strategy till 2020. He played a pivotal role in fine tuning the strategy, which involved achieving crude processing capacity of 50 MMTPA through grass route/creep expansion of existing refineries. This passionate engineer also contributed in shaping up BPCL’s entry into petrochemicals through propylene derivative products.
Earlier, Padmanabhan was in charge of co-ordination among group refineries of BPCL's Mumbai and Kochi Refinery, joint venture Bharat Oman Refineries Limited (BORL) and NRL.
He has been working with BPCL since 1980 and has experience and in-depth knowledge in major functions of refinery including production, process, technical services, quality control, international trade and was a member of the task force for corporate restructuring.
Known for his green drive, he was responsible for successful supply of Euro III auto fuel in first phase, Euro IV equivalent auto fuels in second phase and in conceptualisation and commissioning of the first hydrocracker integrated Lube Oil base stock production plant.
Padmanabhan also served as the Convener of the Committee for finalising specifications of hydrocarbon fuels under Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
As a member of the expert group constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to evaluate performance of refineries and take steps to make them more efficient, viable and profitable, Padmanabhan has a key role to play in NRL which has recently signed a deal to export petrol and diesel to Nepal.
NRL’s foray into Nepal markets is a strategic move to generate market for its products in view of proposed expansion of its refining capacity from three to nine million metric tons per annum.
Earlier, NRL has achieved yet another feat by attaining the coveted ISO : 50001 : 2011 certification for Energy Management Systems for the scope 'Production of Petroleum products by refining crude oil including product dispatch terminal operation' from internationally acclaimed certifying agency, DNV, Netherlands. With this, NRL becomes the second public sector refinery in the country to receive this distinction. The present authorized capital of the company is Rs 1,000 crore and paid up capital is Rs 735.63 crore. BPCL owns the maximum 61.65 percent in the PSU and OIL 26 percent.
At this juncture NRL is fortunate to get an experienced technocrat like Padmanabhan and it will be interesting to see how this captain steers the ship of the PSU. Only time will tell!