The aim of the project was to provide an alternative route for Russian and Kazakhstani oil and to ease the traffic burden in the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

[1] In 2003, the Italian energy company Eni studied possible oil transport routes from the North Caspian area.

Another partner in the project, Turkish company Çalık Enerji, carried out technical and commercial studies, and filed for the construction licence on 31 March 2004.

[4] On 19 October 2009, at a ceremony held in Milan, Italy, Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement guaranteeing a stable regulatory framework and agreeing to the participation of Russian oil companies in the pipeline project.

At the same ceremony, Eni and Çalık Enerji signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Transneft and Rosneft to include Russian companies in the development of the project.

[5][6] In September 2010, however, Transneft president Nikolay Tokarev said in an interview that work on the project was halted due to "many questions marks about [the pipeline]".

[14] Ships passing through the Turkish Straits (the Bosporus and the Dardanelles) currently carry 120 million barrels (19,000,000 m3) of crude oil annually.