Natural gas futures surged 6% on Thursday despite another US supply build and strong production levels. Natural gas prices have been relatively quiet throughout the seven-month-old war in Iran, but the energy commodity could be setting the stage for a rally.

October natural gas futures rose $0.194, or 6.22%, to $3.349 per million British thermal units (Btu) at 18:50 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas prices are on track for a 17% weekly and are now up 6.3% year-to-date.

This is the highest price level since July.

“Pretty exciting—but can it last?” Phil Flynn, energy strategist at The PRICE Futures Group, said in a Wednesday research note.

“The tape is reacting to leftover September heat, that Fox Weather warned us about and a tightening storage picture, and the idea that LNG demand is still the floor under this market. Fox Weather has been talking about that late-summer hangover.”

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Thursday that domestic storage levels rose by 53 billion cubic feet in the week ending Sept. 18, up from 44 billion cubic feet in the previous week.

It represented the 26th consecutive weekly build and was concentrated primarily in the Midwest (25 billion cubic feet) and the East (20 billion cubic feet).

In total, US natural gas supplies stand at 3.351 trillion cubic feet, down more than 4% from a year ago but almost 3% above the five-year average.

With the super El Niño cycle expected to result in warmer-than-average winter weather, US storage levels could be higher than normal heading into 2027.

Meanwhile, in other energy markets, October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures surged $2.29, or 2.48%, to $94.45 per barrel. November Brent crude futures advanced $3.31, or 3.21%, to $106.41 a barrel. October gasoline futures dipped $0.0271, or 0.81%, to $3.3135 per gallon. October heating oil futures erased $0.1422, or 3.07%, to $4.4914 a gallon.