SEÁN Haughey, Ned O'Keeffe and the Irish taxpayer are among those losing money on BP after the oil giant's share price collapsed, losing nearly €3.4 billion in the wake of the recent oil spill.

Last week stock prices continued to fall after US president Barack Obama declared he would have sacked chief executive Tony Hayward if he had worked for him.

BP is facing a criminal investigation, a law suit and monumental financial damages over the worst-ever ecological disaster in the US.

Last week, the share price dropped below 400p as a result of Obama's announcement that he was trying to find out "whose ass to kick" in the unfolding scandal.

In Ireland the news was bad for two of the Dáil's more extensive stock-holders. According to the Oireachtas register of interests, both Seán Haughey in Dublin and Ned O'Keeffe in Cork have invested in the company.

But it's a more worrying picture for taxpayers who, according to the last National Pension Reserve Fund portfolio of investments, have nearly €38 million tied up in the company.

The long-term damage to the company and its stock price remains unclear. Investors were also given the news last week, in the company's Statistical Review of World Energy, that oil use and production dropped last year by the largest amount since the early 1980s.

BP is under severe pressure in the US to block dividend payments of $10.5 billion (€8.7bn) a year until it meets the full cost of the clean-up.

Its market value has plummeted by around 40%, according to analysts, since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, killing 11 people, in April.

Hayward's comment that the impact of the spill would be "very, very modest" did not help his cause and anger in the region is now focused on him.