Bill Haywood, chief executive officer of Hawaii Independent Energy, stepped down Friday from the company that was created to operate the former Tesoro refinery in Kapolei.

Haywood’s departure was unrelated to Hawaiian Electric Co.’s decision the previous day to end its fuel supply contract with HIE at the end of this year, according to HIE spokesman Lance Tanaka.

Kapolei Refinery Vice President Tom Weber will remain manager of the facility and will assume Haywood’s responsibilities.

Haywood was appointed CEO of HIE, a subsidiary of Houston-based Par Petroleum Corp., about a year ago. Haywood said Friday in a phone interview that the company has met his goal and is ready for a transition in leadership.

"I got involved and thought it was worthy of getting some investors together and start it back up and that’s what we did," Haywood said. "It was a grueling period but all startups are like that."

Par Petroleum Corp. last September acquired the 94,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Kapolei, a pipeline distribution system and 31 Tesoro-branded retail stations on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island.

On Thursday, HECO announced it had chosen Chevron Corp. as its primary fuel provider and that the switch from HIE would result in lower prices for consumers.

Par Petroleum CEO William Monteleone on Friday called HECO’s decision "unfortunate," but added that the company intends to remain competitive in the market.

"We are aggressively pursuing other outlets for our products," Monteleone said.

Par Petroleum said it will hold an investor call Monday to discuss HECO’s decision to end the fuel supply contract.

That contract with HECO represented less than 8 percent of HIE’s refining segment revenue for the first six months of 2014, according to Par Petroleum.

The oil refinery and the utility are continuing contract discussions, according to Par Petroleum.

"They are a big user of energy and it is in our best interest to continue conversations with them," Tanaka said.

Par recently announced a yearlong military contract to provide aviation turbine fuel, valued at $160 million.

Monteleone also said its pending $107 million acquisition of Mid-Pacific Petroleum Inc. that was announced in June is expected to close by year-end. That acquisition will add an estimated 4,000 barrels per day of gasoline, according to Par.

Mid-Pacific Petroleum operates or distributes fuel through more than 80 retail locations and four terminals across Hawaii.