Roundup: Petroecuador, Blue Equity, Profire Energy, OSX

Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador announced the discovery of an estimated 18Mb of oil reserves after drilling exploratory wells Chonta Este-1 (5Mb, Auca Sur field), Cobra-1 (5Mb, Shushufindi) and Aguarico Oeste-1 (8Mb, Shushufindi). *** Blue Equity and Cool Corp announced that Blue Equity acquired a controlling interest in Cool Petroleum Holdings, the exclusive distributor of Shell (NYSE: RDS.A, RDS.B) bulk fuels, chemicals and lubricants in Jamaica. Cool Petroleum is the largest fuel retailer by volume in the country and operates more than 50 service stations, with projected 2011 revenue of US$370mn, the companies said in a joint statement. Blue Equity purchased the interest by acquiring Neal and Massy Holdings' stake in Cool Petroleum and an undeclared number of Cool Petroleum shares from Cool Corp. *** Profire Energy reported that Brazilian oil and gas components vendor Gascat agreed to market and sell Profire products. In a statement, Profire said it "believes this strategic alliance places it in a unique position to enter a promising and nearly untapped Latin American market for burner management and control technology." The company added that "demand for oil and gas continues to rapidly increase in Brazil, and more broadly, throughout Latin America." *** And offshore oil and gas equipment and services company OSX Brasil announced its subsidiary OSX Construção Naval received a US$228mn disbursement under a bridge loan entered into with Brazil's economic and social development bank BNDES to fund construction of the Açu shipbuilding unit. Construction of the project in São João da Barra, Rio de Janeiro state, began in July in partnership with Hyundai Heavy Industries. Operations are scheduled to begin in the first quarter 2013.