Natural gas futures are trying to reclaim $4 before the trading week is finished, even as domestic inventories came in higher than expected. Natural gas prices are on track for a weekly loss, paring its solid year-to-date gains. But the energy commodity’s near-term performance might depend on the weather outlook.

May natural gas futures rose $0.048, or 1.24%, to $3.92 per million British thermal units (Btu) at 17:04 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas prices are poised for a weekly loss of about 1% but remain up 25% this year.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic natural gas supplies surged 37 billion cubic feet for the week ending March 21, up from the previous week’s build of nine billion cubic feet. This came in slightly higher than the consensus forecast of 25 billion cubic feet.

Most of the build occurred in the South Central region, climbing 37 billion cubic feet.

In total, US natural gas inventories stood at 1.744 trillion cubic feet, down 557 billion cubic feet from the same time a year ago. They are also 122 billion cubic feet below the five-year average of 1.866 trillion cubic feet.

Natural gas prices have been under pressure on news that a Freeport LNG plant is set to return. As a result, greater liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes are set to traverse through the US economy.

That said, is it time to be bullish? Yes, says Phil Flynn, an energy strategist at The PRICE Futures Group.

“My take on natural gas is we should be heading to the seasonal low here and it might be a good time to put on bullish option strategies,” he said in a note.

In other energy commodities, May West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures and June Brent crude futures were little changed at $69.70 and $73.02, respectively. May gasoline futures were flat at $2.24 a gallon. May heating oil futures held steady at $2.244 a gallon.