The first tanker with 100,000 metric tons of oil will arrive at a Russian Far East port in the last week of December, symbolizing the launch of a major new pipeline, the pipeline operator said on Friday.

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 Korea.

The launch of the Kozmino sea terminal is scheduled for December 27-29. Initially, the port will have throughput capacity of 15 million metric tons of crude, according to Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft.

The Kozmino port will service tankers meeting international safety standards.

A 1,100-kilometer (680-mile) stretch of the pipeline was opened in October 2008 in Russia's Far Eastern republic of Yakutia.

MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti)