BEIRUT — Caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayad welcomed on Thursday an offer proposed by TotalEnergies and QatarEnergy to build a solar power plant in Lebanon, according to local media outlets.

Lebanon's outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati received a joint letter from the aforementioned companies in April expressing their intent to "produce 100 megawatts of solar power," LBCI reported on Monday.

"We have been under a financial siege for five years, deprived from all investments ... in the face of this situation, the State of Qatar remains loyal to Lebanon and its people," Fayad said Thursday.

The project announced amid some controversy, as Lebanon's Minister of Economy Amine Salam claimed to only have learned of the project to build "three power plants" during his own visit to Doha. He criticized his counterpart in the Energy Ministry for being absent on the issue, saying he hadn't followed up on the proposal.

Salam has involved himself in the project on the grounds that "the economy is suffering because of the energy sector." Later, however, in a press conference held Thursday, he used a different tone, saying that "political quarrels in Lebanon" shouldn't get in the way of such endeavors.

At a separate press conference held shortly after Salam's, Fayad assured that the Qatari offer is "welcome." The Qatari offer, which Fayad said was for the construction of a single power plant, rather than the three mentioned by Salam, would require a one-square kilometer plot of land and would produce one hundred megawatts of electricity.

It would be carried out under a "long-term" contract between the public and private sectors, and would allow the private sector to sell power to Électricité du Liban (EDL), he explained, adding that it was "not a gift" or an operation that would have no cost for Lebanon, as Salam had said earlier in the day.

According to Fayad, the project was the subject of a letter sent by the two companies to outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in the summer of 2023. Last week, almost a year later, Fayad was instructed to send an official response and prepare a "proposal." The Energy Ministry set up a "working group" to address the issue of production rights, energy sales and prices.

Qatar has been increasingly establishing itself as a mediator in the region and maintaining good relations with all the political forces in Lebanon. Qatar played a role in the negotiations between Lebanon and Israel on their maritime border which led to a historic agreement back in 2022. In January 2023, QatarEnergy joined France's TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni on Sunday as a partner in the consortium set to begin hydrocarbon exploration in offshore blocks 4 and 9 of Lebanon's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).