Chevron
Q2 2022 Earnings Call
Jul 29, 2022, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning. My name is Katie, and I will be your conference facilitator today. Welcome to Chevron's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded.
I will now turn the conference over to the general manager of investor relations of Chevron Corporation, Mr. Roderick Green. Please go ahead.
Roderick Green -- General Manager, Investor Relations
Thank you, Katie. Welcome to Chevron's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call and webcast. I'm Roderick Green, GM of investor relations; our CFO, Pierre Breber; and EVP of Upstream, Jay Johnson, are on the call with me today. We will refer to the slides and prepared remarks that are available on Chevron's website.
Before we get started, please be reminded that this presentation contains estimates, projections, and other forward-looking statements. Please review the cautionary statement on Slide 2. Now I will turn it over to Pierre.
Pierre Breber -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Roderick, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We delivered another strong quarter, another quarter of strong financial results with ROCE over 25%, the highest since 2008. Special items this quarter include asset sale gains of $200 million and a $600 million charge to terminate early a long-term LNG regas contract at Sabine Pass. C&E for the quarter was nearly $4 billion, including inorganic spend to form our JV with Bunge.
With the acquisition of REG, our total investment was $6.8 billion, more than double last year's quarter. Strong cash flow enabled us to fund this higher level of investment, pay down debt for the fifth consecutive quarter, and returned more than $5 billion to our shareholders through dividends and buybacks. Adjusted second quarter earnings were up more than $8 billion versus last year. Adjusted upstream earnings increased mainly on higher realizations partially offset by lower liftings from the end of concessions and Indonesia and Thailand.
Adjusted downstream earnings increased primarily on higher refining margins. Compared with last quarter, adjusted earnings were up nearly $5 billion. Adjusted upstream earnings increased primarily on higher realizations, partially offset by tax and other items, including higher withholding taxes on TCO dividends and cash repatriations. Adjusted downstream earnings increased primarily on higher refining margins and a favorable swing in timing effects.