Small oil producers are a good crude play, says Axa IM

Investing in oil is a good idea in the medium to long term, thanks to growing emerging-market demand and concerns over how it will be met -- and buying into a small- and mid-cap fund is a wise strategy to benefit from rising crude prices. So argues Philippe de Lavalette, director in the equity division and commodity/energy specialist at Axa Investment Managers in Paris. Demand growth for crude oil is largely non-OECD driven, and that is increasingly the case, de Lavalette told Asia…