By Su Keenan
2006-10-17 14:27 (New York)

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen Schork, an energy investor and author of a daily industry newsletter,
The Schork Report, comments on crude oil prices, which dropped for the first time in four days today. He spoke in an interview.

Crude oil fell in New York on forecasts that U.S. inventories rose and skepticism OPEC will cut production by 1 million barrels a day.

"I think the market got too overbought yesterday. When the Nymex opened yesterday, before the rally, oil traded lower. There's a serious question regarding OPEC's ability to get their act together. The only reason oil, gas and heating oil moved higher yesterday was the strength in natural gas. It was one of the top 22 single-day gains in natural gas history."

"We are heading into a warm winter with abundant supply. When natural gas gains evaporated, everyone started to bail on this market. We have the inventories tomorrow. And on Thursday we have the NOAA winter weather forecast. I think a lot of people are moving to the sidelines at this point. Investors don't want to be caught owning energy futures ahead of a bearish report."

Editor: Young

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To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Ed Caldwell at (1) (212) 617-2267 or ecaldwell@bloomberg.net.