June 26 (Reuters) - Tamboran Resources, a

natural gas exploration and production company backed by

billionaire Bryan Sheffield, said on Wednesday it had raised $75

million in its initial public offering (IPO) in the United

States.

The IPO valued Tamboran at $421.3 million and the price at

which the shares were sold was lower than the $24 to $27 range

the Sydney-based company had marketed earlier, when it set a

target of raising up to $175.5 million from the offering.

Tamboran is focused on extracting natural gas from the

Beetaloo basin in Australia's Northern Territory, but it expects

no material revenue until at least 2026.

BofA Securities, Citigroup and RBC Capital Markets were the

underwriters for Tamboran's IPO.

Sheffield Holdings - an affiliate of Bryan Sheffield, the

son of Texas oilman Scott Sheffield and founder of shale

producer Parsley Energy - is the company's largest shareholder.

Parsley was acquired by Pioneer Natural Resources in

2021.

Since it releases fewer pollutants, natural gas has been

billed as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil. Some believe it

can be a viable stand-in as the world gradually shifts towards

renewable sources of energy.

But critics have questioned this narrative, arguing that the

methane emissions tied to natural gas make it too harmful to be

a so-called "transition fuel."

Companies listing in the U.S. can command a more favorable

valuation due to the availability of a bigger capital pool. U.S.

IPOs from Australian companies, however, have been rare.

Tamboran's share sale could be a barometer for other

IPO-bound companies. Despite the listings of some big names such

as Reddit, public markets have been wary of backing companies

with limited financial history and are scrutinizing business

models much more closely than during the pandemic-era boom.

Zeekr, a China-based player in the buzzy EV industry, was

trading merely 1% above its IPO price as of Tuesday while

SoftBank-backed Tempus AI's stock has lost a third of its value.