HSBC Holdings PLC plans to bring on board by year-end an international oil company as strategic partner for a new refinery project by Libya's Zwara Oil Refining Co., or Zorco, business weekly Middle East Economic Digest reports in its latest issue published Friday.

"We are focusing on a limited target list of IOCs, who would be suitable for the project. Ideally, we would secure one by the end of the year," head of project finance for HSBC Middle East Jonathan Robinson said, MEED reports.

Zorco appointed HSBC as financial adviser on the 200,000-barrel a day refinery in December 2008. HSBC expects to take the estimated $5 billion project to the international financing market in the second half of 2011, Robinson said, according to MEED.

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Co.