ExxonMobil has thrown its weight behind rival BP in an attempt to block a precedent-setting court order requiring Lord Browne, the UK oil group's beleaguered chief executive, to testify on Friday in a civil lawsuit.
Exxon, the world's biggest public oil company, and a string of Texas business groups, are petitioning the Texas Supreme Court to overrule a decision by lower courts compelling Lord Browne to testify in the lawsuit arising from BP's Texas refinery explosion.
The 2005 explosion, which killed 15 people and injured 500, was the biggest US industrial accident in a decade.
The Texas Chemical Council, Texas Oil and Gas Association, Texas Association of Manufacturers and Texas Association of Business have all signed the petition.
It argues that forcing Lord Browne to be questioned for up to six hours in London would scare business from Texas and set a legal precedent that foreign courts could invoke to order Texas-based senior managers to be deposed in distant places about incidents in affiliate operations. The questioning would be filmed to be played by plaintiffs in the case, which goes to trial next week.
"Companies would be reluctant to shift business operations to Texas if doing so meant that those activities could subject their senior officers - many of whom are located in other states or countries - to depositions in Texas, regardless of whether the relevant evidence is available through less disruptive means,'' said the petition.
Brent Coon, the leading plaintiffs lawyer in the civil lawsuit, said Exxon and the others "did not have a dog in this fight". His position is that Lord Browne has unique knowledge pertaining to the case because he visited the refinery immediately following the explosion, made budgetary cuts that affected the maintenance and staffing of the refinery, and took remedial efforts after the accident.
BP insists none of that proves Lord Browne has unique knowledge.
Lord Browne has, nonetheless, taken a hit from the disaster, bringing forward his retirement to this year after the refinery explosion was followed by a spill in Alaska that led to the closure of half that oilfield because of corrosion.
