Limas Projects

Willing and cable

Limas Projects, the newest company of the Limas Group in Holland, is active in projects worldwide and was founded to provide customers and relations of the Limas Group with the chance to outsource complete projects as well as parts of projects.

The business is independently operated and oriented towards the provision of technical services that comprise the installation of maintenance and management of all types of technical installations in the field of electrical installations, instrumentation, communication technology and installations.

The Limas Group was founded over 15 years ago, starting with Limas Techniek BV, which catered to the demands of large technical companies requiring skilled works on a flexible basis. This company carved out a successful position as a supplier of skilled teams of ship electricians, and it continues to offer solutions for the successful implementation of teams – for electrical installations, ironwork, welding, fitting and other skilled labour.

Over the years, the Limas Group’s founder Mr Lima developed increasingly specialised services, with a strong emphasis on marine, offshore and industry. Limas Projects was created to (sub) contract projects and several other companies were formed in Portugal and Spain to handle specific requests of the market.

By 2008 the Limas Group had well established itself in its markets and the organisation currently employs over 100 people around the world. Besides its specialised technical companies, the Group hosts an import-export company called Pafelim and a FIFA agency by the name of Eurofoot BV.

European Oil and Gas Magazine spoke to Limas Projects’ managing director, Jaap Oprel, to find out about the new business and its current activities. “Limas Projects is part of the Limas Group, which has origins in Portugal and started in 1996 in the Netherlands. Two years ago the owner asked if I could join his team and help found a new company within the holding – which was Limas Projects. The new company started operating in January last year and since then we have become quite a well-known electrical installation contractor, mainly for the shipping and offshore industries.

“Within the Limas Group, we are a stand-alone unit for projects and we have our own project team. What we do is the new building of smaller fixed platforms and the living quarters, as well as engineering on specific installations such as fire and gas systems. Importantly, we supply the complete package.”

Going into further detail about what Limas Projects undertakes, and citing examples of current and recent work, Jaap comments: “We are giving electrical engineering and advice to our clients for the Swift Drilling project, which is a new building of an oil rig in Indonesia. The drilling package will be built in Germany. We are also working with Jack-Up Barge, which is a new company in the offshore world, by undertaking a lot of engineering and project management. My colleagues and I are travelling up and down to Indonesia for that work. We work together with our clients to supply materials and equipment, and we always endeavour to cooperate closely with those partners.”

Continuing, he adds: “We have just finished our part on the Seafox 7 new build, which involved working on the new living quarters and installation of new generators below the main deck, and a new engine room. We completed that job in just six weeks and we have installed a little over 25,000 metres of cable, including installation, hook up and commissioning.”

The self-elevating accommodation, maintenance and workover unit Seafox 7 was built under ABS classifications in 2008. Capable of withstanding extreme storm conditions in the southern North Sea, the four-legged Seafox 7 is able to operate all year round in water depths of up to 45 metres, depending on the local environmental seabed conditions. Designed by MSC and built at Labroy Shipyard, Seafox 7 is the first newly built jack-up rig to enter the region. Its operational work scope ranges from well services activities, maintenance and installation/construction works to platform decommissioning activities. The unit is also suitable for supporting installation activities in the offshore wind farm market.

Limas Projects operates in several sectors, though its predominant specialisations are in marine and offshore, chemical and petrochemical, and distribution networks. “Concerning installations, we have a solid specialism in the installation of cable routing and tracing,” Jaap reports. “We have a great deal of experience in conversion on drilling rigs; I myself have worked in that area since 1978. As a company, we also have long-held experience in the electrical side of the specific drilling rigs onshore.”

Having enjoyed success over the past 12 months, Limas Projects will be looking to branch out into new markets as part if its next phase of development. It has a number of exciting prospects at the moment, which should help to safeguard its future as much as possible, given the unfavourable economic conditions.

Jaap reveals the company’s ambitions: “We have plans for the future; we’re looking at new markets and trying to undertake some work in industry, as it is getting along well in our region. There are a lot of quotes that we have submitted to our clients for the new building of platforms, letting modules, etc., and we’re very close to being awarded a contract for the building of aluminium living quarters. This is all pending and obviously nowadays, considering we’re in the grip of a global recession, it’s very hard to determine which projects will definitely be going ahead and which may be postponed for a certain amount of months, but we certainly see plenty of opportunities for growth.”

Summarising his main objective regarding Limas Projects’ evolution, Jaap concludes: “I would like to see that Limas Projects is able to grow in the first four years of its existence, to become more and more of an engineering agency with a talented and competent project team that is capable of supporting our clients in a better way. That will be my primary aim and focus over the next few years.”

Limas Projects

Services Electrical and technical  installation and  maintenance for offshore