Efforts to remove oil from the stricken Rena ship on Astrolabe Reef have reached one of the most significant milestones yet, with pumping from the submerged starboard tank set to start tonight.

Salvors on board the ship are finalising hose connections from the No.5 tank holding 358 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and Maritime New Zealand salvage unit manager Kenny Crawford says he expects to begin pumping oil onto the barge vessel Awanuia tonight.

Rena stranded on Astrolabe Reef, about 25 kilometres from Tauranga. Photo: MNZ.

'This is a significant milestone. I expect pumping to start tonight, if not within the next 24 hours.”

'There are four more hose connections to make – after that we can start to transfer the oil from No.5 starboard to the Awanuia.”

Kenny estimates it will take 100 hours to remove all of the oil from the starboard tank, depending on the sea conditions and structural stability of Rena.

Kenny says pumping from the submerged starboard tank will be slower than it was from the port tank.

'It is slightly different than what we did with the port tank. The ‘hot tapping' technique takes a longer time. Once pumping starts it is continuous.”

Salvors have been working on ‘hot tapping' the starboard tank by pumping in 750 tonnes of seawater to raise the oil to the top.

Associate Transport Minister Nathan Guy was in Tauranga today and visited the MNZ Incident Command Centre on Cameron Road.

'I have a lot of confidence in the salvors as they prepare to pump the oil from the starboard five tank.

'The weather looks alright for the week, but we need to keep in mind that the ship is slowly deteriorating and circumstances could change at any time.”

Once the remaining oil is removed from Rena containers can start to be lifted off the stranded ship.

An ST60 equipped with two cranes will begin sea trials in Tauranga this week and is set to remove containers once the go ahead is given.

Kenny says only three or four containers will be able to be removed from the ship daily.

'Some containers will be easy to get off, while others will be more difficult.”

A total of 35 transponders have been attached to containers to track their location if they were to fall into the ocean.

MNZ National On Scene Commander Rob Service says a number of shoreline assessment teams have been working on beaches from Mount Maunganui to Maketu today, as well as a team on Matakana Island.

'There were fifty people working along Mount Maunganui, made up of New Zealand Defence Force, along with experts from Australia and New Zealand.”

Rob says a team of 30 contractors are working from Harrisons Cut to Papamoa, testing beach cleaning machines.

This includes two hand driven machines and one larger machine that Rob says has better capability.

There have been no reports of oiled wildlife today and a total of 403 birds are being cared for at the Wildlife Response Centre in Te Maunga.

Nathan visited the wildlife centre this morning to see how the penguins are adapting to their new temporary aviaries on site.

'You have to recognise the fantastic work being done at the wildlife centre. The volunteers really need to be congratulated.”