NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A BP PLC employee has asked a federal appeals court to overturn a judge’s ruling that he must submit to a medical exam to determine whether he is fit to be questioned under oath in civil litigation spawned by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t immediately rule Wednesday after arguments by attorneys for BP well site leader Donald Vidrine and Transocean Ltd. Transocean owned the Deepwater Horizon, which was drilling at BP’s Macondo well site in the Gulf of Mexico when it exploded in April 2010.