By Giorgi Lomsadze

Georgia’s state employees may be a hard-working, committed and no-nonsense bunch, but, apparently, so strong is their sense of mission that they sometimes just have to burst into song. Most recently, in a United-Artists-style video from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources to extol the merits of hydropower. [5]

“Water is the source of life and a sea of energy,” the ministry's bureaucrats warble (with varying degrees of talent) in their hymn to the country's as-yet only abundant source of energy. “We’ve come to sing of love," they add for good measure.

Georgia has been busy building hydropower plants and electricity transmission lines in hopes of becoming the region’s main electricity hub, with power exports not only to neighboring Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia and Turkey, but further afield to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In the second quarter of 2011 alone, Georgia exported $14 million worth of electricity, making hydropower one of its main exports, according to the National Statistics Office.

Electricity, though, still lags behind such export staples as metal, scrap metal and ammonium fertilizers. Used cars [6] top the main exports, but there is no song about old cars yet.

Georgia, long renowned for its singing prowess, is not the only one in the neighborhood singing energy songs, however. Gazprom’s company song [7] is already a classic, which has merited international criticism, including from The Financial Times [8].

Within the South Caucasus, though, if someone should be singing about energy, you would think that would be Azerbaijan. Judging by Georgia and Russia's examples, the creative opportunities are endless. But, for now, the petrodollar-rich State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (better known as SOCAR) remains silent. Just a passing case of stage fright, no doubt.

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