UPDATED 5:37pm: Whangarei Harbour has escaped an oil spill.

The Northland Regional Council has swept the beaches this morning after a crude oil tanker leaked several hundred litres of oil yesterday afternoon, triggering a full incident response from both Refining New Zealand and regional council staff.

Regional harbourmaster Jim Lyle says all staff reacted quickly and efficiently and although it was just a small spill the incident was a good learning experience

"Every live event's a good learning experience. We obviously exercise regularly, but these sorts of events are very useful for learning. We also learn where the oil goes in certain current conditions and that sort of thing which is very useful."

Mr Lyle says no oil was found on the beaches this morning and there's no evident environmental impact.

Refining NZ CEO Sjoed Post says there was a quick and effective response.

"Basically within minutes of actually realising that something may be awry with the ship...we had a full incident response exercise in action."

Mr Post says he'd like to thank the community for their support.

"We were so heartened when we posted on Facebook and seeing the reactions of people who were immediately willing to come to the beach and help with what at that point in time seemed the possibility of pollution of the beach."