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Ecuador's Vepamil S.A. Group has announced that as part of the reorganization of its business activities, its bunker supply operations will now be carried out under the name Oceanbat S.A.

Established in March 2001, Oceanbat S.A has been operating as a ship owner and bunker barge operator for the Vepamil Group. The company owns a total of six vessels.

The 5,200 deadweight tonne (dwt) M/T Maria del Carmen II is a dedicated bunker barge, as is the newly acquired 7,500 dwt M/T Maria del Carmen V, which will commence bunkering operations over the coming months, according to Oceanbat.

The 7,500 dwt M/T Maria del Carmen III and M/T Maria del Carmen IV, are currently on time-charter with Petroecuador. They are both involved in the transportation of clean fuels for the state owned oil company.

Meanwhile, the 2810 dwt M/T Maria del Carmen and El Talisman are being used for minor supplies of marine gasoil.

Up until now, sales of marine fuels to international clients have been carried out under the name Vepamil S.A. Speaking to Bunker Index, Bunker Manager Amparo Brocel explained that the group had decided to carry out its bunker supply operations under the name Oceanbat S.A, so that there was a clear differentiation between national and international fuel sales.

As a result, Vepamil S.A. will continue to operate in the internal fuels market and will also sell lubricants.

With regards to Oceanbat SA, the company stressed "it is important to point out that the Management, staff and barge ownership have not changed."

Whilst all telephone and fax numbers will remain the same, the company said that it had also acquired a new domain for Oceanbat SA, which meant that all email addresses will now end in "@oceanbat.com".

"During this process and for the rest of the year, all messages sent to vepamil.com will be automatically redirected to the new domain until end of December," Oceanbat said.

Please find below the new email addresses for members of the Oceanbat bunker team.

Michael Norton - mnorton@oceanbat.com

Amparo Brocel - abrocel@oceanbat.com

Marjorie Minchala - operaciones@oceanbat.com

Jose Bjerre - jbjerre@oceanbat.com

With regards to the Vepamil Group's other businesses, Expodelta S.A. will act as a local distributor of asphalt and Biofactor S.A will be the group's lube oil reprocessing service.