Natural gas in storage in the U.S. rose last week but is 0.2 percent below the five-year average for this time of year, a government report said Thursday.

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 rose by 85 billion cubic feet to more than 1.61 trillion cubic feet for the week ending May 16.

The inventory level was slightly below the five-year average of nearly 1.62 trillion cubic feet, and well below last year's storage level of about 1.92 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.

In morning trading, natural gas for June delivery fell more than 2 cents to about $11.62 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.