KHABAROVSK, December 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft on Tuesday launched the second leg of the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline.

The launch ceremony took place in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk in the presence of Transneft president Nikolai Tokarev.

In early November, Transneft completed filling ESPO’s second leg with technical oil in preparation for full operations.

ESPO-2 ties Skovorodino, the terminus of the ESPO-1 pipeline, to the Pacific port of Kozmino.

Construction of ESPO-2 started on January 14, 2010, two weeks after the first leg began operation. Since then oil has been delivered to Kozmino by rail. The second leg will pump 30 million tons of oil annually with eventual expansion of capacity to 50 million tons.

The first leg of the East Siberian-Pacific Ocean pipeline is designed to pump 30 million metric tons of Siberian oil to China, Japan, and South Korea.