In the biggest overseas plant order ever received by a Korean contractor, Samsung Engineering Co. has bagged a three-year contract, worth $2.6 billion, from Sonatrach - the Algerian state-owned oil company – for the modernization of an oil refinery in Skikda, Algeria.

Announcing about the order on Sunday, the Seoul-based Samsung Engineering said that the contract entails the company to undertake the construction of chemical plants and increasing the oil refining capacity of Soantrach’s Skikda unit.

In a statement, Samsung Engineering’s CEO Jung Yeon-joo said that the aforementioned contract has opened the doors for the company in terms of future contracts with Sonatrach as well as in the entire African market.

The Algerian company, which intends spending $63 billion by 2013 for increase oil and natural-gas production, awarded the contract to Samsung Engineering in May, following an auction for the project. Ever since, Soantrach and Samsung Engineering were negotiating on the construction-cost that was not a part of the original $1.2 billion contract value.

Commenting on the future prospects that the Sonatrach order would open up for Samsung Engineering, analyst Byun Seong Jin, at Seoul’s Mirae Asset Securities Co., said: “The value of the deal is higher than I previously thought. If the company successfully completes the project, which is highly likely given its past experience, the North African region will be its key future market.”