THE East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) has revealed details of its 2012 Southern North Sea Conference.

Speakers at the event next March will include former BP chief executive Lord Browne, now a partner in private equity firm Riverstone Holdings.

John Westwood, group chairman of international energy business advisors Douglas-Westwood, will set the scene before chairing the conference.

Also in the line-up in speakers are Paul Jeffs, head of production operations for RWE, Peter Giller, director of German windfarm developer WindMW, Oliver Kleyn, from Shell Projects, Keith Tucker, decommissioning manager for Perenco, and Rainer Mohr of turbine manufacturer REpower Systems.

The conference is being held at the John Innes Centre in Norwich on March 1, with EEEGR’s annual Energy Innovation Awards dinner being staged the evening before, February 29, at the Holiday Inn hotel at Norwich International Airport.

Three previous EEEGR conferences have been sell-outs and the John Innes Centre has nearly double the capacity of previous venues, with around 340 delegates expected to attend.

There will also be an inaugural exhibition featuring companies from across the supply chain. Delegates will have the chance to meet buyers from major companies with specific energy projects in gas and offshore wind, including them SSE, Perenco, Offshore Marine Management, Petrofac, Jacobs Engineering and EAOW (East Anglia Offshore Wind).

EEEGR executive director Celia Anderson said: “It is the biggest conference we have ever staged and reflects the rapidly growing interest for business and investment opportunities in the East of England. We have developed to embrace that international as well as regional significance.”

Blair Ainslie, managing director of conference sponsors and participants Seajacks UK, added: “We have the highest possible regard for the skills and expertise of this region and, since the oil rush of the seventies, this is the most exciting time in its energy history.”