Agriterra, the oil-prospector-turned-African-farming group, has announced another change of tack, saying it is not, after all, to enter the palm oil market.

The UK-listed company, which is chaired by former England cricketer Phil Edmonds, said that it had ended talks over buying Equatorial Biofuels, a plantation group which owns 169,000 hectares of land in the west African country of Liberia.

The proposed deal, which Agriterra chief executive Andrew Groves last month said would give the group an "all-important hub" in western Africa, foundered on both of Equatorial Biofuels' defining factors – Liberia and palm oil.

"Following further evaluation, the company believes that the project was not synergistic with its existing operations in Mozambique and was outside its current expertise within the agricultural sector," Agriterra said.

'Perhaps badly advised'

The existing operations run by the group, which has maintained that it is "focussed on the agricultural sector in central and southern Africa", are based some 3,000 miles from Liberia, and focused on corn processing and beef production.

Agriterra had been "perhaps badly advised" in signing the memorandum of understanding which last month obliged it, under stock exchange rules, to reveal its interest in Equatorial Biofuels, a source said.

In the City, Agriterra shares closed up 0.13p at 5.25p.

The company in January changed its name from White Nile, and switched operations from oil exploration in Sudan after being hampered by political difficulties, and a challenge by France's Total, from exploiting its main oilfield.