Natural gas futures were little changed on Thursday as the US government logged the 23rd consecutive week as national inventories continued to increase. Prices have crept up over the past month, but they have struggled to maintain momentum.

October natural gas futures were flat at $2.96 per million British thermal units at 17:31 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas prices are on track for a weekly gain of at least 1% after posting a 12% boost. Year-to-date, the energy commodity is down more than 6%.

“In the U.S., natural gas is carving out a pretty rounding bottom that looks attractive. Front-month futures have been grinding back toward $3 after spending most of late summer stuck in the high $2s. Henry Hub spot has been holding near $2.90,” Phil Flynn, energy strategist at The PRICE Futures Group, said in a Thursday note.

“The next move higher still hinges on two things that hit today: the EIA storage report and the Fox Weather outlook.”

US energy firms reported a 20-billion-cubic-foot increase in domestic stockpiles for the week ending August 28, according to the Energy Information Administration.

This is up from the previous week’s build of 15 billion cubic feet and was in line with economists’ expectations.

Last week’s supply injection was largely driven by the East (26 billion cubic feet) and the Midwest (24 billion cubic feet).

In total, US natural gas inventories stood at 3.214 trillion cubic feet, roughly 5%, or 160 billion cubic feet, above the five-year average of 3.054 trillion cubic feet.

Domestic natural gas output has been setting records, with daily output surpassing 110 billion cubic feet.

The weather outlook is mixed heading into the fall, split between early fall heat patterns and cooling temperatures.

“The fundamental picture is still a tug-of-war between a modestly tighter storage path and a market that knows winter inventories are still projected to finish October near record levels. Today’s EIA print and the next few Fox Weather model runs decide whether this rounding bottom gets bought or gets sold,” Flynn said.

In other energy commodities, October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures rose $0.69, or 0.76%, to $91.70 per barrel. November Brent crude futures ticked up $0.14, or 0.15%, to $95.77 a barrel. October gasoline futures jumped $0.025, or 0.81%, to $3.1288 a gallon. October heating oil futures tumbled $0.0648, or 1.38%, to $4.6174 per gallon.