The deal which will formally consolidate Kinder Morgan Inc. into one company is expected to close before the Thanksgiving holiday (Nov. 27) in the U.S., chairman and CEO Richard Kinder said during a recent conference call to discuss third-quarter 2014 earnings.

This deal, estimated at $71 billion, is designed to simplify the Kinder Morgan entity while also helping improve its cost of capital, which will help the company develop the multitude of projects in its backlog.

“We went from $17 billion in backlog at the beginning of the third quarter to $17.9 billion at the end of the quarter even after deducting about $1.1 billion of projects that were completed and placed in service during the quarter and removed from the backlog,” Kinder said.

“To me this growth demonstrates once again the demand for midstream energy infrastructure in North America and the size of our backlog together with the enormous footprint of our pipeline and terminal assets is the best predictor of future growth at Kinder Morgan,” he added.

A sizable portion of this backlog is attached to the natural gas market with about $4.4 billion in backlog projects related to natural gas with a large portion focusing on LNG and Mexico exports. LNG export projects are divided into two parts: first party which consists of the company’s own $1.6 billion Elba Island, Ga., terminal and its related transportation expansions, and second party projects in which Kinder Morgan invests in infrastructure to serve other companies’ LNG facilities. Such projects total about $750 million. Projects related to Mexico add another $900 million.

More impressive for the outlook of the gas sector is that this backlog doesn’t include power conversion, industrial and petrochemical projects, which are recognized by many industry observers as having the most potential for growth in the midstream.

Further growth is anticipated in the storage sector, according to Steve Kean, president and COO of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP. He noted that with all of the increased activity that storage can be expected to pick up interest.

The strong backlog in gas projects isn’t diminishing the potential for NGL and crude projects even after Kinder Morgan completed its Cochin Pipeline as liquids-related projects make up the bulk of the company’s backlog.

Kean said that $600 million of Kinder Morgan’s project backlog is related to crude-by-rail projects, $400 million associated with the buildout of American Petroleum Tankers marine transport vessels, and another $1.4 billion for liquids, tankage, dock and piping infrastructure.

“We expect to continue to see growth in demand for the liquids infrastructure. I think that demand also extends to our existing assets in Houston and Edmonton where we continue to see nice renewal rates as well as expansions,” Kean said.

The $310 million Cochin project reversed about 1,500 miles of the 1,900-mile system to allow 95,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of light condensate to be transported from Kankakee County, Ill., to Fort Saskatchewan, Canada.

The company held an open season for the Utica-To-Ontario (UTOPIA) Pipeline, which will transport NGL 240 miles from Harrison County, Ohio, to the Cochin Pipeline where it will be shipped to Windsor, Canada.

Another proposed pipeline is the Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline (UMTP), which would ship Y-grade NGL from the Utica-Marcellus region to the Texas Gulf Coast by converting more than 1,000 miles of the company’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline running from Mercer, Pa., to Natchitoches, La., from gas to NGL service while building 220 miles of new pipe from Natchitoches to Mont Belvieu, Texas.

Kinder Morgan has failed to secure enough commitments to proceed with this project, but Kean said that each time the company surveys the field and market they generate more interest in the project than the previous period.

“We are actively pursuing its development as a reset to … say what does the market really need out there? We think the market really needs a 2018 in-service date. There’s been a lot of talk for a while about [a] 2017 [in-service date], but there doesn’t seem to be much harm in a 2018 in-service date. So we’ve adjusted our spend and development work,” Kean said.

Kinder also discussed the proposed $4.5 billion to $5 billion Northeast Energy Direct project, which was proposed by its Tennessee Gas Pipeline subsidiary to upgrade its existing pipeline system in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut in order to meet increased demand for natural gas in Northeast markets. The project, which completed a successful open season in March, will transport between 800 million cubic per day and 2.2 billion cubic feet per day and is projected to be in-service by November 2018. The company is currently working to add Maine to the project.

“We’re working towards critical mass. We haven’t put the project in the backlog yet and won’t until we get that critical mass. We’re working with a number of customers for additional capacity and the project certainly looks like it’s needed for New England. We’re also seriously looking at our ability to reroute certain parts of it to obviate some of the uproar we’ve had in the Berkshires [region in Massachusetts and Connecticut] about where our pipeline is running. We think we found solutions to route the great bulk of it along [existing] right-of-way which would not be as disturbing [to the region] as the original plan,” Kinder said while adding that the company has not yet filed the final route.

Clearly Kinder Morgan has a great deal of potential organic growth, but there is definite room for acquisitions thanks to its improved cost of capital should the right deals come along, especially if Kinder Morgan deemed these potential acquisitions as being undervalued.

One way or the other consolidation seems to be able to improve optionality for Kinder Morgan in the coming years as the midstream continues to expand and improve.