The issue is resolved, the external party did not have a master branch. Only a develop branch.
external_repos=( "OurName.projectx" "OurName.anotherproject" "OurName.thirdproject" "OurName.stackexchange" )
for i in "${external_repos[@]}"
do
echo "Handling" $i
TEMP=`echo $i | cut -d "." -f 2`
TEMP="${TEMP^}"
REPO="EXTERNAL-REPO-$TEMP"
# printf "Temp : %s\n" $TEMP
# printf "Repo : %s\n" $REPO
if [ -d "$i" ]; then
pushd $i
git pull external_developer develop && git push origin develop
popd
else
git clone https://extern_u:$3cret@bitbucket.org/external/$i.git
pushd $i
git remote rename origin external_developer
git remote add origin http://APIUser:P@s$w0rd@repo.ourdomain.com/scm/git/$REPO
git push origin develop
popd
fi
done