Duke Energy will likely be looking to buy more electric utilities after it has completed its $26 billion merger with Progress Energy.

Duke CEO Jim Rogers, who will be executive chairman of the merged company, described the corporate strategy as part of a 13-minute filmed interview with the Financial Times newspaper. Rogers made the comments during a visit to New York to promote Charlotte and the city's emerging energy cluster.

Charlotte-based Duke subsequently filed the Times' article with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its ongoing disclosure of information pertinent to the pending merger, which is expected to close at the end of this year. The two North Carolina companies announced their union in January and plan to make their first regualtory filings this month.

"We'll be in a stronger position to continue the consolidation, which I think is inevitable in a very fragmented market in the U.S.," Rogers said. "As you think about how this industry has consolidated over the last 20 years, it continues."