SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco Friday upheld a $5.6 million jury award to a former Chevron Corp. petroleum engineer who claimed she was discriminated against and wrongfully fired.

The award to Kiran Pande, 47, was levied against San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. by a federal jury in San Francisco in 2007.

It included $3.1 million for past and future economic losses and $2.5 million in punitive damages.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the award for economic losses and affirmed the punitive damages award by a 2-1 vote.

Pande, who holds a Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from Stanford University, worked for Chevron as a research engineer from 1988 until she was fired in 2003.

She claimed in a 2004 lawsuit that a supervisor, Rex Mitchell, harassed and discriminated against her on the basis of her gender and national origin beginning in 2001. Pande, a naturalized American citizen, was born in India.

Among other allegations, she charged that Mitchell referred to people of Indian origin as "towel heads."

Pande also alleged that Mitchell and other Chevron officials wrongly retaliated against her for complaining about the alleged bias by denying her promotions and pay increases and eventually firing her in 2003.

Chevron maintained at the time of the trial that the termination stemmed from Pande's decision not to relocate from San Ramon to Houston when her department was moved there.

Pande contended, however, that several male employees in the same department were given new jobs in San Ramon or allowed to stay in the same job there.

The appeals court panel wrote, "The evidence put before the jury at trial was sufficient to support its finding of a causal link between Pande's protected conduct (complaints of employment discrimination) and the adverse employment action (failure to obtain a new position within Chevron after her employment group was relocated.)"

Chevron could appeal further to an expanded 11-judge panel or to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said, "Chevron has only just learned of the ruling and is evaluating its options."