NEW YORK: US natural gas futures reversed course to fall over 2% on Thursday after a federal report showed a much bigger-than-expected storage build last week.

Data from the US Energy Information Administration showed utilities added 53 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas to storage last week, compared with analysts’ expectations of a smaller-than-usual 37 bcf build.

Front-month gas futures gave up initial gains to turn negative, and were down about 2% at $6.804 per million British thermal units at 10:44 a.m. EDT (1444 GMT).

Data from Refinitiv showed average gas output in the US Lower 48 states was at 94.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in April from 93.7 bcfd in March, down from December’s monthly record of 96.3 bcfd.

On a daily basis output was on track to drop about 0.4 bcfd to 93.2 bcfd on Thursday, according to preliminary Refinitiv data. Preliminary data is often revised.