bash script wp-cli search-replace 0 replacements, but command-line 3000+

I'm runnning this command;

sudo -u www-data wp search-replace www.siteurl.com www.newsiteurl.com --recurse-objects --skip-columns=guid --skip-tables=wp_users

From command line: 3.456 replacements From bash-script: 0 replacements

the line in the bash script:

wp search-replace ${OLD_URL} ${NEW_URL} --recurse-objects --skip-columns=guid --skip-tables=wp_users

I've tried trimming the variables, I've tried ${VAR} and $VAR, and even --path=/path/to/site

The output table with details about replacements comes out on both bash and command-line versions. 0 replacements for the bash-script and 3.456 replacements from command line.