India's biggest petrochemicals maker Reliance Industries, whose shares hit a 15-month high earlier on Friday on a newspaper report it had struck gas at a new site, said it would make an announcement later.

Work is in progress at coal bed methane blocks in Shahdol, in Madhya Pradesh, Reliance said in a statement when queried on a report in The Economic Times daily, which said the company has discovered gas in an onshore site in Madhya Pradesh.

"The company will make an appropriate announcement in due course," Reliance said.

The stock, which has a weightage of about 16 per cent in India's most widely tracked share index, rose as much as 1.7 per cent to a 15-month high of Rs 316.90 at the Bombay Stock Exchange on the newspaper report.

Reliance said it was awarded coal bed methane blocks on competitive basis in Shahdol, under the coal bed methane policy of the government of India.

In April, the company raised its estimates of gas reserves in its deep-sea field off the country's southeast coast by 40 per cent to 14.5 trillion cubic feet from 10.5 trillion cubic feet.

The stock rallied a total of 6.7 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday on speculation the company may further raise the estimates of its gas reserves at its annual general meeting on June 16.

"It is difficult to estimate the value of such a gas find in the absence of further details such as in-place reserves, capital expenditure required for development, royalty and the period over which gas would be produced," J P Morgan noted in a report released on Friday.

The brokerage has retained its 'neutral' rating on the stock.