Natural gas futures tumbled almost 3% on Thursday despite a larger-than-expected storage drawdown. The United States has seen some of the largest supply withdrawals on record in recent weeks, but as the effects of last month’s severe winter storm fade, storage levels are stabilizing.

April natural gas futures fell $0.072, or 2.51%, to $2.796 per million British thermal units (Btu) at 16:39 GMT on Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas is on track for a 5% weekly loss and is down 11% this year.

For the week ending Feb. 20, domestic natural gas inventories fell by 52 billion cubic feet from the previous week’s decline of 144 billion cubic feet. This was higher than the consensus forecast of 36 billion cubic feet.

The drawdown was driven mainly by the East (24 billion cubic feet) and the Midwest (16 billion cubic feet).

In total, US natural gas supplies stood at 2.018 trillion cubic feet, up 141 billion cubic feet from the same time a year ago. They are also little changed from the five-year average of 2.025 trillion cubic feet.

With three weeks left until spring, many parts of the United States are seeing rising temperatures, which could weigh on home-heating demand and bolster domestic stockpiles heading into the summer season.

At the same time, a significant winter storm could target the Midwest in the coming days, one week after a blizzard blanketed the region.

Ultimately, inventories could fluctuate over the coming weeks and heading into the warmer months.

In other energy commodities, March West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures rose $1.07, or 1.64%, to $66.49 per barrel. April Brent crude futures jumped $1.32, or 1.82%, to $71.98 a barrel. March gasoline futures ticked up $0.0256, or 1.14%, to $2.271 a gallon. March heating oil futures advanced $0.0439, or 1.73%, to $2.5748 per gallon.