Chinese state-owned oil traders PetroChina and Unipec have chartered ships to load more than 2 million barrels of U.S. crude oil in December, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. The shipments come on top of nearly 3 million barrels that BP has sent to Asia as oil traders sell growing supplies of cheap U.S. shale oil to the region of the world that consumes the most crude. Analysts expect U.S. shale production to increase next year after an agreement by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia to cut output from January lifted oil prices. Traders took advantage of an arbitrage between cheaper U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude and the global benchmark Brent and low freight rates. A narrowing of the spread between Brent and Middle East Dubai […]