Former BP chief may still testify in blast case

04 May 2007 02:22  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--A Texas attorney was seeking again to have former BP chief executive John Browne to give a deposition in a case resulting from the 2005 Texas City refinery blast that killed 15 workers, according to media reports on Thursday.

Brent Coon, an attorney representing hundreds of injury case plaintiffs in the blast, said he had filed a motion to have Browne appear next week in Houston for a deposition in the case, according to Reuters news wire service.

In February, the Texas Supreme Court stayed an attempt to have Browne testify.

Browne resigned his position as the head of BP on Tuesday. Coon said BP could no longer claim that having Browne testify would disrupt company operations since he was no longer chief executive, according to Reuters.

Boon’s law firm released a BP internal report that was critical of the company’s management culture in the wake of the Texas City explosion.

The report by members of BP’s senior management recommended that the company fire four refining executives. One of those executives had already resigned.

“In sum, the Texas City Refinery had a culture of risk taking coupled with a failure to understand the process safety implications of prior incidents [resulting in three deaths and a major explosion in the 12 prior months], a long tradition of failure to comply with simple procedures, the desire to avoid conflict within its organisation and a penchant for placing persons in key roles who lacked adequate professional training,” the report said.

By: Brian Ford
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