Natural gas futures rallied as much as 3% on Thursday after the US government reported a larger-than-expected withdrawal from domestic inventories. After a one-day selloff in natural gas markets, the energy commodity quickly rebounded toward the end of the trading week, looking to hover around $6.60.

January natural gas futures rose $0.178, or 2.77%, to $6.608 per million British thermal units (Btu) at 15:23 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas is on track for a weekly gain of about 11%, bringing its year-to-date tally to 84%.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic inventories of natural gas fell 50 billion cubic feet for the week ending December 9, more than the market estimate of 45 billion cubic feet. This is also more than double the previous week’s 21-billion-cubic-foot drop.

In total, US inventories of natural gas stand at 3.412 trillion cubic feet, virtually unchanged from the same time a year ago and the five-year average.

Market experts were surprised because it was warmer than usual across most of the country, aside from the Rockies and Northern Plains. The weather models do suggest that frigid air could blanket most of North America until after Christmas, although patterns show that temperatures could trend warmer heading into 2023.

The debate among industry analysts is who is actually in charge of the natural gas market: the bulls or the bears?

“Problem is, Wednesday’s pull back stalled just in front of the 22- and 50-day moving averages once again,” ICAP analyst Brian LaRose told clients, according to Nat Gas Intel. “So, sitting in the same position following Monday’s fade. If the bulls can promptly intervene once again a surge to $7.604, even $8.012-8.177-8.191 is still possible. If they can not, the bears will have a chance to shift the narrative back in their favor.”

Looking ahead to next week’s report, early estimates expect a drawdown of around 50 billion cubic feet.

In other energy commodities, January West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures fell 1.08, or 1.4%, to $76.20 per barrel. February Brent crude futures tumbled $1.01, or 1.22%, to $81.69 a barrel. January gasoline futures slid $0.0566, or 2.52%, to $2.1878 a gallon. January heating oil futures slipped $0.0237, or 0.72%, to $3.2561 per gallon.