CHINA Petroleum & Chemical Corp. shares slumped the most in over three months after Asia’s biggest refiner posted its lowest annual profit since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Inc. sparked the global financial crisis.

    Net income in 2014 for the company, known as Sinopec, dropped to 46.5 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion), or 0.397 yuan a share, from 66.1 billion yuan, or 0.53 yuan, a year earlier.

    That compares with a mean of 53.5 billion yuan from 23 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales were 2.83 trillion yuan, down 1.9 percent.

    Brent, a benchmark for half of the world’s crude, dropped 48 percent last year, forcing explorers worldwide to pare investment and staffing levels to reduce costs. Sinopec’s annual profit almost halved in 2008 to 28.5 billion yuan, when crude plunged 51 percent.

    Last year’s “profit decline was mostly due to lower crude prices and inventory losses,” said Laban Yu, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Jefferies Group LLC.

    “This year will be ugly for Sinopec as upstream losses may intensify and inventory losses may continue,” Yu said.

    Sinopec’s 2015 profit could fall another 80 percent, assuming a price of US$50 a barrel for Brent, he said. (SD-Agencies)