The end is nearly in sight for salvors working to pump oil off the Rena, with less than 150 tonnes remaining on the stricken cargo ship.
Salvors have been continuously pumping heavy fuel oil from the Rena's submerged starboard tank since Wednesday night, with some some 225 tonnes of oil transferred to the tanker Awanuia by this afternoon.
The least accessible of the ship's tanks originally contained 358 tonnes of oil, with about 133 tonnes still to be pumped off.
If the current pumping rate of four tonnes an hour was sustained, salvors could potentially remove all the oil from the Rena by Monday morning.
However, Maritime New Zealand salvage unit manager Arthur Jobard this morning said the rate was expected to slow as the oil and seawater in the tank met.
The next update on progress was expected tomorrow morning.
Meanwhile, plans to reopen Bay of Plenty beaches have been delayed.
Maritime New Zealand national on-scene commander Rob Service said he had hoped some beach access restrictions would be lifted this weekend, but that was now unlikely to happen until next week.
Restrictions remain in place from Tay St in Mt Maunganui to Maketu.
"We have a process to follow before we can lift the access restrictions, including ongoing surveys and consultation with key parties,'' Mr Service said.
"We know people want to get onto some of those beaches, but we can't rush in - we must ensure we have worked carefully through that process.''
Clean-up operations were continuing today at Mt Maunganui, Papamoa, Maketu and on Matakana and Rabbit Islands.
Oil spill response teams were focusing on areas where there were significant levels of oil in the sand and on rocky shorelines, to prevent it remobilising and affecting other areas.
Regional council staff, Defence Force personnel and volunteers had been working "day in, day out'' to clean up oil as the risk of another significant release still loomed.
"While that threat is not over, every drop of oil the salvors remove from the ship is another drop of oil we will not need to clean up,'' Mr Service said.
"It's great news for us that we are getting closer to the point where the risk of another significant spill from Rena is gone.''
