Oil traders are so bearish that they barely noticed when Libya closed two key ports

Here’s how bearish the oil market is: Libya—where rising production has been one of the main reasons for the six-month price plunge—declared force majeure at two major oil ports, taking some 300,000 barrels a day off the market, yet crude prices plunged to a new low in early trading today. The price of international benchmark Brent crude has since recovered a bit, but the dive shows the market’s chronic dark mood.

Libya has been exporting more than 750,000 barrels of oil a day, volumes that, along with a surge of US shale oil supplies, have been crucial to sending down global crude oil prices since June. In fact, Libya had said it would export up to 1 million by the end of the year (paywall). But fighting between the government and an Islamic militia the last two days has closed the port of Es-Sider and may have shut down Ras Lanuf as well, reducing exports to about 450,000 barrels a day.