The new terminal operations building for the Office of Petroleum Management/American Samoa Petroleum Cooperative is nearing completion. The new building will feature more modern office spaces and is being constructed by local contractors, Paramount Builders, Inc.

Project engineer J.R. Mirasol told Samoa News yesterday that the project is over 95% completed. The second floor is move-in ready but final touches still need to be carried out on the ground floor. According to Mirasol, the original plan had office spaces on the first floor but changes were later made to cancel that part of the plan. As the project progressed, Mirasol said changes were made again. This time, they were told to go back to the original plan of building office spaces for the ground floor.

The project started off with a cost of $1.34 million but after the change orders, the price tag increased to $1.4 million. Part of the change orders include renovation work on the building next door.

An official from OPM/ASPC told Samoa News that they anticipate being in their new office by the end of the year with employees expected to start moving in this month. The workers have had to work out of a little warehouse (formerly used to house fire trucks) in the middle of the terminal, behind the tanks, since construction work on their new office commenced last August.

OPM manages the facilities at the tank farm, including the equipment. Samoa News understands that because the new building has more space than initially anticipated, some OPM employees including those who are working out of Tafuna will be moving into the new office as well.