Kinder Morgan adds $5.4bn of projects, lifting its backlog to $14.4bn, and earns 35 cents a share

Two pipelines designed to move more than 2.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day each joined Kinder Morgan's project list in the third quarter. One, the Southeast Connector, would carry Marcellus and Utica gas to the Southeast. The other is the Permian Link on its NGPL system.

They helped lift the Houston company's project backlog to $14.4bn from about $9.7bn at the end of June, according to results it filed with the SEC on Wednesday. Natural gas accounts for $13.2bn of that, the most in the company's history.

Net income attributable to Kinder Morgan rose to $764m from $628m. Adjusted earnings were 35 cents a share, up 21 percent, and adjusted EBITDA climbed 9 percent to $2.18bn.

The company now expects full-year adjusted EPS to beat its $1.36 budget by more than 13 percent.