Padmanabhan, a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical), was Executive Director (Refineries Co-ordination) at BPCL before being appointed MD of NRL, the company said in a statement.
BPCL holds 61.65 per cent stake in NRL.
At BPCL, Padmanabhan was in charge of co-ordination among group refineries viz. BPCL's Mumbai and Kochi Refinery, joint venture Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL) and NRL.
"He was also the task force leader for finalising BPCL's future strategy till 2020 which involved achieving crude processing capacity of 50 million tons through grass route/ creep expansion of existing refineries and contributed in finalising BPCL's entry into petrochemicals through Propylene derivative products," the statement said.