Friday Morning Potpourri -- Some Bakken May Be Interspersed With Non-Bakken Stories

A random note on the iPhone 5. Apparently one can surf the 'net while talking on the iPhone on some carriers, such as ATT, but not on others, such as Verizon. It's a carrier-specific issue. Technologically, it doesn't make sense, according to at least one source. Buyer beware. [Full disclosure: I have huge investments with ATT; none with Verizon. "Huge" in this case may be less than the value of a used car, but then I'm a small retail investor. Bear with me. I also don't have an iPhone and won't be getting one. I have a Samsung non-smart clam-shell phone with almost no battery life with Sprint; I've been with Sprint for ten years or longer and no plans to switch.]

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A reader sent me the following link to a Reuters article this morning. I am embarrassed that I missed this when it first came out. I haven't had chance to read full article:

Even as big U.S. oil pipelines invest billions of dollars to ship booming oil production south from Canada and North Dakota, a new race is underway in the opposite direction.  

Two of the country's biggest pipelines, both now underutilized, are competing to pump a special type of ultralight oil from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest, betting on growing demand from Canadian producers for the "diluent" necessary to get their heavy oil sands bitumen flowing to refiners.  

The race between the Capline and Explorer lines, which may play out over years rather than months, is the latest example of how fast-growing inland oil production has roiled the U.S. market, forcing key parts of the nation's oil infrastructure to adapt -- or face obsolescence. It is fueled by forecasts that demand for diluent from Canadian oil producers will quadruple in just over a decade.

More to follow, I'm sure.