The Kuwaiti cabinet has approved a project to develop the island of Bubyan to serve northern regions and satisfy growing regional demand for cargo and shipping facilities, particularly in light of opening the Iraqi market.
According to a feasibility study, prepared by Booz Allen Hamilton, and the Kuwaiti Consultancy and Investment Company, demand to commodities unloaded at the northern ports is likely to rise.
Within this framework, activity of imported-exported packaged commodities in Kuwait is predicted to grow by 2-5% per year in the coming 20 years. 
Accommodation capacity of the five existing northern ports – Al-Shuwaikh, Al-Shuaiba, Um Qasr, Khor Al-Zubair and Basra, is estimated at 40mn tons per year. It is projected to rise to 68mn tons by the year 2020, thus these harbours lack 28mn tons accommodation capacity for storage and unloading of products in Kuwait and Iraq.
The cost of the project, whose construction is due to start next year and end by the year 2016, is put at US$850mn. The port will be ready for ship docking in the year 2008, with four docks.
The island of Bubyan is located in the northern part of Kuwait, boasting over 650 square kilometres of space, or about 5% of the total area of Kuwait. The island is about 40 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide.