Some of the major Korean construction firms are owed billions of dollars for construction projects carried out abroad, mostly in oil-producing countries in the Middle East, a report said.

Work on a $6-billion refinery project in Iraq being led by Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C) was recently suspended due to the Iraqi government's late payments, the report in Korea Times said.

It is almost impossible right now to receive construction payments from countries that are heavily dependent on oil exports, such as Venezuela and Iraq, a market analyst was quoted as saying in the report.

South Korea's top five builders have yet to receive a total of 8.81 trillion won ($7.5 billion) of outstanding payments from all their construction projects at home and abroad as of the first quarter of this year, the report said.

Of them, Hyundai E&C is due payments of 2.5 trillion won ($2.13 billion) while Daewoo and GS E&C are due 2.1 trillion ($1.79 billion) and 1.7 trillion won ($1.45 billion), respectively.

Hyundai E&C has yet to receive a total of 1.5 trillion won ($1.27 billion) from the 10 major overseas projects that account for five per cent of the company's annual sales. Of them, six projects worth 838.3 billion won ($715 million) are in Middle East countries, including Qatar and Iraq, the report said.

Likewise, GS E&C also has yet to receive 828.6 billion won ($706 million) for 18 overseas projects. Of them, 11 projects worth 565 billion won ($482 million) are in the Middle East. Also, another major builder Samsung Construction & Trade reportedly has yet to receive a total of 583.2 billion won ($497 million) for projects it is building in the Middle East, it said.

Due to the decline in the nation's housing market in the late 2000s, Korean builders shifted their work to the overseas market and won many construction projects in the Middle East without considering the projects costs and their future solvency.