Ｓｌｉｄｉｎｇ Ｄｏｗｎ ａ Ｂｌａｃｋ Ｈｏｌｅ

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A65-percent plunge in In'st-quarter profits, that's the fallout after China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), Asia's largest refiner, posted huge losses from its principal refin- hag operations.

Sinopec reported on April 28 that its profit for the first quarter ending March 31 was 6.7 billion yuan ($957 million), almost a third down on comparative figures for last year of 19.42 billion yuan ($2,77 billion). Its earning per share ha the first quarter was 0.077 yuan ($0.011), far below the 0.224 yuan ($0.032) for the same period ha 2007.