BP ex-CEO could testify on Texas City blast -lawyer

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) Former BP Chief Executive Officer John Browne may be forced to testify in a case stemming from a deadly 2005 Texas refinery explosion now that he is no longer at the helm of the British oil major, a lawyer for plaintiffs said today.

The court in February stayed an attempt to get Browne to testify about the 2005 blast, which killed 15 workers and injured 170 more, when he was heading up BP.

Browne resigned unexpectedly on Tuesday after it emerged that during legal proceedings, he had lied about how he met a gay former lover. He was trying to prevent a UK newspaper from publishing details of the affair.

Brent Coon, the Texas lawyer representing hundreds of injured plaintiffs from the Texas City, Texas explosion, says now that Browne is not longer CEO, BP can no longer claim bringing him in to testify would disrupt operations.

''Will they produce him? That's still up in the air,'' said Coon, adding he filed a motion to have Browne appear next Wednesday in Houston to be deposed.

Browne, ane of the most respected business leaders of this generation, saw his record stained by a string of accidents over the past two years in the United States -- including a massive Alaska pipeline spill and the the Texas City blast.

A report by a team of high-level executives for BP's senior management and released today by attorneys representing some of the victims, said the incident was symptomatic of problems within the company.

BP has maintained Browne has no special insight into the explosion, the worst US industrial disaster in a decade.

But Coon said the former CEO does have direct knowledge about the incident because he was the one who ordered cost-cutting measures that a government report found partly responsible for the accident.

''If he doesn't come to us, we will go to him,'' said Coon.

He said he would use every means possible to get Browne to testify and would take the matter to the world court in The Hague if necessary.

''We are going to depose that man,'' said Coon.

BP said it believed nothing has changed since the Texas Supreme Court stay in February.

''To the best of our understanding, the Texas Supreme Court order staying Lord Browne's deposition still remains in effect,'' said Neil Chapman, a spokesman for the company.

A congressional committee investigating another problem with a major oil pipeline leak in Alaska said this week internal BP documents and e-mails suggested company managers may have deliberately underspent on maintenance in an effort to meet corporate cost cutting goals.

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