KINIBIZ Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) profit after tax plunged 27 percent for the full financial year 2014 (FY14) to RM47.6 billion, partly due to RM22.6 billion impairments and collapse of crude oil prices.

“The RM22.6 billion impairments are non-cash items. We have had to reassess the value of our assets and write down RM22.6 billion due to the fall in crude oil price,” said George Ratilal, Petronas’ group chief financial officer (CFO) during a press conference.

Ratilal said that despite Petronas’ good cash flow, a stronger US dollar and the company’s 5 percent increase in upstream in production during 2014, the RM22.6 billion impairments made a huge dent on Petronas’ earnings.

Petronas profit before tax (PBT) for FY14 fell 18 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM77.7 billion on the back of a 4 percent increase in revenue yoy to RM329 billion.

According to Ratilal, Petronas suffered its first ever quarterly losses in the fourth quarter of financial year 2014 (4Q14) since the company started reporting its financial results on a quarterly basis.

Petronas recorded RM7.3 billion losses in 4Q14, down from RM12.8 billion profit in 4Q13.

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