There has been a fire aboard the SeaRose FPSO while undergoing a major refit at a shipyard overseas.

The massive vessel, which is designed to produce, store and transfer oil from the White Rose field, has been in drydock at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast since January.

According to local news outlets, about 50 firefighters responded to the call shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, using breathing apparatus and water jets to put out the fire.

The blaze was confined to a cargo tank being worked on by a shipyard subcontractor and has already been deemed accidental.

In a statement to VOCM News, the shipyard confirmed the fire but refused to identify the vessel in question.

But a spokesperson for operator Cenovus Energy confirmed it involved the SeaRose.

All crew on board at the time were safely evacuated with no injuries reported.

It’s the second time the Belfast shipyard has won the contract to refit the SeaRose, with the last work completed 12 years ago.

It’s also the second time a fire has broken out on board the vessel.

In 2012 a generator caught fire while the ship was at the White Rose oilfield hundreds of kilometres east of St. John’s. The generator was turned off, the ship’s fire suppression system put out the fire, and there were no injuries.

The vessel is scheduled to return to the field this summer.

The SeaRose FPSO was built in 2004 by South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries.

The current $100-million refit is being done overseas because the FPSO is too big to be drydocked in any Canadian east coast shipyard.