With U.S. oil and gas production at the highest levels in years, the demand to get the products to market is also on the rise. Deloitte released a study in late 2013 titled, “The Rise of the Midstream: Shale Reinvigorates Midstream Growth,” which examines the need for more infrastructure.

“During 2006-2012, midstream companies invested almost twice the amount of capital they did between 1992 and 2006,” the report says.

Not only is the amount being spent on infrastructure increasing, but the number of companies making those large investments is also increasing—from only seven who had a market cap of more than $5 billion in 2006 to around 25 billion today.

Some of the greatest infrastructure needs are in the Bakken shale where the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that for 2011 “35% of the natural gas production had to be flared or otherwise not marketed because of the insufficiency in the infrastructure required to store or transport it.”

And the price tag for the needed infrastructure—more than $200 billion by 2035, according to the report. If the U.S. were to become a large energy exporter, that price tag could balloon.

Several open seasons commenced and concluded in November and December, indicating that new infrastructure is in the works. Navigator Energy Services’ Big Spring Gateway System, Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Mariner East 2 project and Medallion Pipeline Company LLC’s Wolfcamp Connector were just a few of the companies that held open seasons.

Processing facilities were also announced, including ONEOK Partners’ new 200 million cubic feet per day (MMcf) per day gas processing facility—the Lonesome Creek plant in McKenzie County, North Dakota. Lonesome Creek plant is the partnership's sixth new gas processing plant built in the region since 2010 and seventh plant overall.

Meanwhile, Enterprise Products Partners LP announced that the eighth natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionator at the partnership’s Mont Belvieu, Texas, complex is operational. The new unit, which has the capability to fractionate up to 85,000 barrels (bbl.) per day of NGL, increases total NGL fractionation capacity at Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu facility to approximately 655,000 bbl. per day.

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