History
Pacific Coast Oil Trust listed in 2012 with California oil interests, but fell to penny-stock prices, lost its NYSE listing in 2020 and spent years without a completed audit.
2012-2015: Listing and the royalty structure
Pacific Coast Oil Trust began trading after Nasdaq certified its securities for listing on May 1, 2012. On May 8, 2012 its IPO closed. The sponsor, Pacific Coast Energy Company LP (PCEC), conveyed to the trust net profits interests and an overriding royalty interest in California oil and gas properties. A net profits interest is a right to a share of the money left after costs. The trust was entitled to 80% of net profits from the proved developed reserves as of December 31, 2011, and either 25% of net profits or a 7.5% royalty on the remaining properties. PCEC expected royalty-type payments on those remaining properties until a payout around 2020.
PCEC received 38,583,158 trust units for the conveyance and sold 18,500,000 units to the public at $20.00 each. The trust received none of the proceeds. Later sales, 13.5 million units at $17.10 in September 2013 and 2,654,436 at $13.00 in June 2014, were also made by selling unitholders. The last distribution on record was declared in November 2014: $0.07291 per unit, about $2.8 million, for December. The record for 2015 is quiet.
2016-2018: Price slump and borrowing
On February 25, 2016 the NYSE told the trust it was out of compliance because its average unit price had been below $1.00 over 30 trading days. The trust had to say by March 10 that it intended to cure, which would give it six months. The same day, it signed a $232,000 note to PCEC, which had lent it money because the trust lacked cash for ordinary administrative expenses. The note was restated in October 2016, with $1,037,463 then outstanding. It matured March 31, 2018, carried 4.0% interest from August 10, 2016 (8.5% before), and was to be repaid by offsetting amounts PCEC owed the trust. The record is quiet after that until 2019.
2019-2020: New owner, lost auditor, lost listing
On September 3, 2019 Newbridge Resources acquired all equity in Pacific Coast Energy Holdings, giving it control of PCEC's management. PCEC was to keep operating the properties under the existing agreements. On October 4, PricewaterhouseCoopers resigned as auditor, saying the change of ownership caused its decision. With no auditor, the trust could not file its Q3 2019 10-Q on time, and the NYSE issued a late-filing notice on November 19. A week later it gave a second warning that the price had again averaged below $1.00. The trust said neither it nor the trustee would attempt a reverse split or other action to lift the price.
The trust engaged Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas (PKF) on March 2, 2020. The NYSE extended the late-filing deadline to August 15, 2020, but the trust also missed its 2019 10-K and Q1 2020 10-Q. It then failed to get its price above $1.00 by August 5, 2020, so the NYSE suspended trading and began delisting. The units moved to OTC Pink as ROYTL on August 6, a more limited market that could be less liquid. On August 20 the exchange filed to remove the securities from listing.
2025-2026: Resignation and a new auditor
The record is quiet from late 2020 to 2025. On July 11, 2025 PKF resigned, having completed no audit since March 2020. It cited allegations by a former PCEC employee that could affect the reliability of the financial statements, and missing PCEC support for the asset retirement obligation estimate, the cost of closing wells. The trustee said it was investigating but was held back because PCEC had not lent enough to hire experts, and it demanded the funds. The trust expected to miss its Q2 2025 10-Q and faced further delays auditing 2019 through 2024.
On March 16, 2026 the trust engaged Weaver and Tidwell, L.L.P. as auditor. As of March 17, 2026, filings from Q3 2019 onward remained overdue, and the note to PCEC was still outstanding.
Written from the 14 story beats below (2012 to 17 Mar 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.