Costco sells the cheapest petrol in Iceland

Costco have begun selling petrol outside their store at Kauptún in Garðabær at 169.9 ISK per litre. This is the cheapest petrol price in Iceland.  Costco will open their highly anticipated store tomorrow, Tuesday.

Their low price for petrol has raised eyebrows in Iceland and many people are questioning how come Iceland's petrol providers are putting such a high price on theirs.  The cheapest petrol in Iceland excluding that from Costco is from Orka's X branches at 185.7 ISK per litre, 15.8 kronas higher than Costco's price.  Normal Orka branches charge 197.8 ISK per litre, Atlansolía and ÓB charge 199.4 ISK per litre,  Shell or Skeljungur as it's called in Icelandic charge 199.4 ISK per litre and N1 and Olís 199.9 ISK per litre.

Runólfur Ólafsson, managing director of FÍB, the association of Icelandic vehicle owners, says speaking to mbl.is that this is great news. "It's great to see that we're getting some real competion on this market."

He adds that Costco's petrol price supports what they've been pointing out for years, which is that Icelandic customers have had to pay 20 - 30 times higher prices for petrol than neighbouring countries due to the lack of competition.

He also adds that he expects Icelandic petrol companies to come up with some counteraction and possibly lower prices. He also expects some sort of explanation for their high prices. "They owe an explanation to Icelandic consumers."

Costco opens to the general public tomorrow and enormous crowds are expected.