Natural gas futures plunged more than 3% on Thursday after a bearish US storage report and expectations of tepid demand heading into the fall. The energy commodity has struggled to break out following a disappointing summer.

October natural gas futures declined 3.1% to $2.934 million British thermal units (Btu) on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas prices are on track for a weekly decline of approximately 5%, bringing their year-to-date decline to above 6%.

New US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data show that domestic natural gas inventories soared by 71 billion cubic feet for the week ending September 5, up from the previous week’s supply build of 55 billion cubic feet. This came in slightly above the market consensus of 68 billion cubic feet.

A majority of the supply build was concentrated in the Midwest (30 billion cubic feet) and the East (22 billion cubic feet). The Pacific region registered a withdrawal of one billion cubic feet.

In total, US natural gas supplies stood at 3.343 trillion cubic feet, down 38 billion cubic feet from the same time a year ago. They are also 188 billion cubic feet above the five-year average of 3.155 trillion cubic feet.

This was shortly after the EIA projected that US natural gas prices would average $3.70 per million Btu in the fourth quarter and $4.30 next year.

As the autumn season approaches, US temperatures are expected to remain warmer than usual in the early part. This is weighing on near-term price action since there would be little domestic demand.

However, prices could find support as weather outlooks are pointing to blasts of cold weather across the United States.

In other energy commodities, October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures declined $1.30, or 2.04%, to $62.37 per barrel. November Brent crude futures erased $1.12, or 1.66%, to $66.37 a barrel. October gasoline futures fell $0.0104, or 0.53%, to $1.9689 per gallon. October heating oil futures dipped $0.01, or 0.45%, to $2.27 a gallon.