Built in 1984 by the Fincantieri Marghera Shipyard in Venice, Italy and christened MV Nikolay Markin, she sailed as a barge carrier under various names and flags until in 2014 she was converted into a powership at the Sedef Shipyard in Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey.

[1] Two diesel engines of Type GMT BL230.12V (230x310) and two of Type GMT BL230.8V (230x310) manufactured by the Grandi Motori Trieste in Trieste, Italy give a total power of 8,680 kW (11,640 hp) propelling the vessel at 12.8 knots (23.7 km/h; 14.7 mph).

[3][4] The originally barge carrier was converted into a Powership at the Sedef Shipyard in Tuzla, Istanbul as the fifth of the fleet.

In October 2011, the Powership sailed to Basra, Iraq, where she supplied electricity for about one million residents there in a timespan of three years.

[7] In November 2015, Karpowership was awarded a contract to supply electricity to land-locked Zambia via cross-border interconnected transmission lines through Mozambique and Zimbabwe.