BP Lord Browne To Face a Deposition

A deposition will be taken from BP chief executive John Browne in London on Friday related to a fatal 2005 explosion at a Texas refinery run by the British energy giant, a US lawyer said Wednesday.

Brent Coon, the chief lawyer of Brent Coon and Associates, said he plans to fly to London and question Browne on Friday about cost-cutting measures Coon claims affected the operations of BP's Texas City refinery.

"We personally believe that the CEO was aware of those circumstances and could have intervened and chose not to," Coon said of one of Britain's best-known business leaders.

A total of 15 people died and hundreds of workers were injured in the March 2005 explosion at the BP refinery.

Jury selection for the trial is due to start Monday.

The lawyer said, however, that US energy behemoth ExxonMobil and a group of energy associations had filed a motion with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to stop his questioning of Browne at the "eleventh hour."

BP lawyers have sought to delay or stop Coon's court-approved bid to question Browne.

Coon has led other cases against BP on the behalf of injured workers and relatives of those killed in the blast.