Gartman: Forget a freeze, this is top threat to oil

Oil watchers are eyeing a potential freeze by producers as the next catalyst for the commodity, but one oil bear says crude's (New York Mercantile Exchange: @CL.1) biggest obstacle is already here.

"I think Uber is a threat to oil for the simple reason that millennials have embraced it dramatically," Dennis Gartman, editor of The Gartman Letter, told CNBC's " Fast Money " traders on Monday. "The millennials are saying 'I really don't need an automobile.'"

Since the founding of Uber in 2009, the ride-hailing company has launched in more than 400 cities and taken passengers on more than 1 billion rides, according to the company's website. And it's the simplicity and convenience of the service itself that Gartman said has converted many would-be personal vehicle owners into Uber-dependent passengers. Oil has fallen more than 40 percent since Uber's inception.

This theory, he said, can be illustrated by taking a look at the history of U.S. total vehicle miles traveled, as reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

"If you take a look at the average amount of driving that has taken place in the United States, it was a very well-defined trend line. We have broken that trend line dramatically," said Gartman. "That whole mystique of driving an automobile is lost and it's not coming back."

For Gartman, the ride-hailing company diminishes the demand for gasoline as well as automobiles — a bearish implication for ever-increasing oil production.

"I think on balance that is a terribly bearish circumstance," said Gartman.

The CNBC contributor stands by his theory that oil will continue to trade between $32 and $42 for the foreseeable future. In a "Fast Money" interview last month, the so-called Commodities King said he would not see $44 oil again in his lifetime .

"I think $42 is going to be very difficult to get through," said Gartman. "There are so many wells that have been capped that could be brought online very quickly."

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