The government said Thursday that natural gas stockpiles increased last week but fell 3.1% below year-ago levels.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states increased by 28 billion cubic feet to 2.919 trillion cubic feet for the week ended July 23.

The government said the reserves were 8.9% above the five-year average of 2.68 trillion cubic feet.

Analysts expected natural gas stockpiles to increase by 31 billion cubic feet to 35 billion cubic feet for the week ended July 23, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Natural gas prices rose 10.7 cents to $4.825 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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