Murali Madhavan to take over as Kochi Refinery head

KOCHI: Murali Madhavan P will take over as the unit head of BPCL Kochi Refinery from January 1 as Prasad K Panicker who has been the executive director and head of the company for the past seven years retires.
Prior to this, Murali Madhavan was executive director (refinery operations).

Under Panicker’s leadership Kochi Refinery completed its integrated refinery expansion project (IREP) at a cost of Rs 16,500 crores and became the largest public sector refinery in the country.

During his tenure, Kochi Refinery also stepped into petrochemical sector and the phase I petrochemical initiative is nearing completion. The phase II petrochemical initiative of Polyol project is being rolled out. In the last seven years a total of over Rs 30,000 crore has been invested by BPCL as part of the these and other developmental activities, an official statement of the company said.

A chemical engineer, Panicker has worked in various operational departments of Kochi Refinery and was general manager (Operations) of BPCL’s Mumbai Refinery.

With his retirement, he is also stepping down as the chairman of BPCL-KIAL Fuel Farm Private Limited which constructed, commissioned and presently operates the fuel farm of Kannur International Airport.

He has also served in the board of directors of Kannur International Airport Ltd and Kochi Salem Pipeline Pvt. Ltd. He was also a trustee member in the Cochin Port Trust.

A chemical engineer, Madhavan, has worked in various departments of Kochi Refinery including projects, operations, process and marketing. He led the technical team that conceptualized the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) and headed the team that commissioned it.

His immediate challenges will be the successful commissioning of the process units under the Propylene Derivative Petrochemical Project (PDPP) which is the first phase of the petrochemical initiatives of BPCL in Kochi and drive the Phase – II, Polyol Petrochemical project.