The concession is located off the coast of Egypt.

In a statement the firm said, “A fire resulted from the incident and was contained within the rig floor before being extinguished. Following the safe evacuation of all crew members on Friday, essential personnel are in the process of re-boarding the rig to assess the situation.”

“The company is unable at this time to estimate the length of rig downtime or costs to repair the rig,” it added and did not comment further.

The Jim Cunningham has been in the West Delta Deep concession in the Mediterranean since August 2002. It had just commenced on a two-well drilling program which was due for completion at the end of the year.

Earlier this week, Egyptian authorities said they would destroy the Temasah production facility after a week long fire sank a SanteFeGlobal jack up rig and extensively damaged the Temasah platform.