It's a bad time to be a heating oil customer.
Not only are they paying record-high prices to heat their homes, they're also being blamed by some for the region's dependence on foreign oil and for contributing to global warming.
Natural gas delivery companies say they have the answer: Convert to gas. The companies say that the price of natural gas is significantly lower than heating oil right now and that switching to "green natural gas technologies" will help prevent climate change.
Steve Holliday, the chief executive of National Grid PLC, the British company that recently purchased Keyspan Energy Delivery, the state's largest gas utility, says his company's 53 percent market share in the Greater Boston area should be closer to 90 percent.
"Natural gas is way out there as the cleanest fossil fuel there is," Holliday said. "There's a huge opportunity here to clean things up by burning natural gas."
In the struggle for supremacy in New England between heating oil dealers and natural gas utilities, everything right now is going the way of natural gas. Gas is cheaper, more versatile, more secure, and, by some measures, more environmentally friendly.
US Census data indicate nearly half of Massachusetts households already use natural gas, while roughly 35 percent use heating oil. Gas utilities have taken market share away from heating oil dealers over the last decade, but the pace of oil-to-gas conversions has slowed.
National Grid numbers indicate conversions within the Keyspan territory reached a peak of 16,800 in 2003, when the company was giving away standard-size boilers and furnaces to homeowners who switched to gas. After the giveaways were replaced with a program offering new customers discounts on boilers and heating oil tank removals, conversions fell to 10,900 in 2006 and were off 9 percent through the first nine months of this year.
The target market for conversions tends to be homeowners who are facing a significant outlay of money to replace an aging boiler or furnace, but that's not always the case.
Gretchen Plotner bought her home in Needham in May. She said the furnace was relatively new, but as a transplant from the West Coast, she wasn't comfortable with heating oil. She also wanted a gas stove. So when she and her husband learned their furnace needed a repair and the oil tank needed to be replaced, they decided to switch to gas.
"We called on a Monday, and the gas line was in by Friday," she said.
What holds some people back from converting to gas is its price. Gas prices tend to be more stable than heating oil prices, but by and large they also had tended to be higher. Heating oil customers also can shop for the best deal, while natural gas customers have only one choice.
This winter, the pricing dynamic has shifted dramatically in favor of natural gas. Propelled by the rising price of crude oil, the average price of heating oil in Massachusetts has risen from $2.67 a gallon in mid-September to a record high of $3.05 a gallon last week, state surveys indicate.
By contrast, typical customers of the state's eight major natural gas delivery companies are paying on average the heating oil equivalent of $2.24 a gallon, according to data generated by the state's heating oil companies.
Prices vary from one gas utility to the next. National Grid's Boston division is charging its typical customer the heating oil equivalent of $2.39 a gallon, while its Cape Cod division is charging $2.43 a gallon. Bay State Gas is charging its typical customer the heating oil equivalent of $1.98 a gallon, while NStar Gas is charging its customers the oil equivalent of $1.95 a gallon.
Nick Stavropoulos, executive vice president of US gas distribution for National Grid, said his company doesn't focus on price in its pitch to heating oil customers because price advantages tend to balance out over time. Last winter, for example, the price of natural gas in the Boston area was significantly higher than the price of heating oil.
Stavropoulos said the sales pitch that seems to resonate best is the ability of natural gas to be used for cooking, heating, and appliances. Increasingly, he said, his company is also stressing the environmental benefits of using gas.
"We are seeing that as a society we're becoming more interested in being green," he said.
In a "Be Green, Win Green" campaign launched during the summer, Keyspan described oil tanks as "275-gallon toxic waste dumps" and said converting to natural gas heating could cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 40 percent - "the equivalent of planting 100 trees every year for the life of your equipment."
Heating oil dealers, who can't compete with the advertising budgets of natural gas utilities, said the toxic waste dump description was nonsense and asked Attorney General Martha Coakley to demand supporting documentation for the gas utility's other claims. Coakley declined to intervene.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, a high efficient furnace burning fuel oil would generate 161 pounds of carbon dioxide per million British Thermal Units, or BTUs, nearly 40 percent more than the 117 pounds emitted burning pipeline natural gas.
Jim Horan, the owner of Horan Oil in Stoughton, said the carbon dioxide comparison doesn't take into account other emissions from natural gas production, including leaks in pipeline systems.
Stavropoulos acknowledged gas leaks are a concern but insisted gas is still more environmentally friendly than oil.
Meanwhile, some heating oil dealers are responding by blending their oil with biofuels in a bid to reduce emissions and dependence on foreign oil. State political leaders led by Governor Deval L. Patrick last week filed legislation mandating that heating oil contain at least 2 percent of "renewable bio-based alternatives" by 2010 and 5 percent by 2013. None of the political leaders suggested a wholesale switch to natural gas.
Holliday, the National Grid chief executive, said natural gas is a far better option environmentally.
"It's the fossil fuel of choice in 2007," he said.
Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.
