The Point Arguello crude is worth about $18 a barrel, compared with $8 a barrel before the crisis, a Chevron spokesman said.

One Chevron spokesman has said, "We're going to fight this until Hell freezes over-and then we'll fight it out on the ice."

"I cannot confirm or deny reports about the structure of the deal," Daniel Johnson, a Chevron spokesman, said.

Mr. Libbey, the Chevron spokesman, said the company had acted in good faith in administering the plans.

A Chevron spokesman later confirmed that talks were under way.

"On the top of our agenda is finding where our employees are," said Mickey Driver, a Chevron spokesman in Houston.

Mike Libbey, a Chevron spokesman, said the pension dispute was the only significant problem involving employees that the company has faced since the Gulf merger.

A Chevron spokesman said the company is in the final stages of negotiation.

"The reformer fire will not cut or reduce our ability to make heating oil," said Jack Galloway, a Chevron spokesman in Philadelphia.

G. Michael Marcy, a Chevron spokesman, said that the company would consider appealing the decision and taking legal action.