ORONO – State Sen. Mary Cathcart and her husband James Dearman this week became the first residential customers of Bangor Gas.

In a brief ceremony Thursday, representatives of the company posed for the media in front of the new natural gas meter, which was painted gold rather than the usual gray, in honor of the utility’s first customer. Cathcart said the gas, used for heat and hot water in her historic Main Street home, has been on for several days.

Rodger Schwecke, general manager for Bangor Gas estimated Cathcart and Dearman will save between $200 and $300 a year by converting from heating oil to natural gas. He said the annual cleaning costs for oil-burning furnaces also would be saved. Schwecke said the cost of converting a residence from oil to gas would run between $800 and $1,200, excluding the cost of running a secondary line to the residence off the main line. Bangor Gas will pay for the installation of 75 to 100 feet of gas line to a residence, he said. The conversion from propane to natural gas would be significantly less expensive, Schwecke added.

Cathcart said she and her husband “jumped at the chance” to convert to natural gas when they learned the gas pipeline would run by their house near downtown Orono. Cathcart predicted that, in the future, when she replaces her electric dryer, stove and oven, she will purchase gas appliances.

But the price of natural gas is rising almost as rapidly as the cost of heating oil, according to a report published in Wednesday’s Boston Globe. Prices in the Boston market prices have jumped more than fourfold in the past year largely because supply has not kept up with demand.

“In a year when most of the media and politicians have focused on skyrocketing heating-oil prices, natural gas customers will now find themselves paying the most to heat their homes,” reported the Globe.

Michael Ferrante, president of the Massachusetts Oil Heat Council, said proposed natural gas price increases could yield prices that would be the heating-oil equivalent of $2 per gallon. Heating oil prices in that state average $1.52, according to the Globe report.

Schwecke said while Bangor Gas purchases natural gas from the same market Boston Gas does, the heating-oil equivalent cost was $1.15 per gallon compared to the average cost of $1.60 per gallon for heating oil in Maine.

While Lianne Harris, chairwoman of the Orono Town Council, referred to the pipeline project as “a major economic development” for this university community, a 1997 State Planning Office report estimated that less than a dozen municipalities would have access to residential service. In 1998, Bangor Gas received approval from the Maine Public Utilities Commission to provide natural gas service to residential, commercial and industrial customers in 12 communities in the greater Bangor area.

On Dec. 7, the company began serving its first industrial customer, Georgia-Pacific Corporation’s paper mill in Old Town. Schwecke estimated Thursday that 70 percent of that city’s residents were located close enough to the pipeline to convert from oil to gas as Cathcart did. He added that the next community to receive residential service would be Brewer, where about 60 percent of residents would be able to make the conversion.

Schwecke said that in the next two weeks, two downtown Orono businesses – Flowers-Antiques and Collectibles and the Bear Brew Pub – would be using natural gas. An auto supply store in Veazie and a new restaurant on Old Town’s riverfront also will be using natural gas, he said.

The University of Maine plans to convert several buildings on the southern end of the campus to natural gas over the next year, according to UMaine spokesperson Joe Carr. He said more UMaine facilities, including Alfond Arena, will be converted over the next few years.

Carr added that much of the conversion was for environmental reasons. He said it was not yet clear how much money the institution would save by switching to natural gas.