This slide highlights the change in adjusted results by segment from the second quarter to the third quarter. During the period, adjusted earnings increased $304 million, mostly due to improved results in Refining, partially offset by lower results in Chemicals and Midstream as well as higher corporate costs. In Midstream, third quarter adjusted pre-tax income was $569 million, down $57 million from the prior quarter. The decrease related to our NGL business and was mainly due to the timing of cargo freight costs as well as higher utility, integration and employee costs. These impacts were partially offset by higher margins from increasing commodity prices. Chemicals adjusted pre-tax income decreased $88 million to $104 million in the third quarter.
This decrease was mainly due to lower margins. Global O&P utilization was 99%. Refining third quarter adjusted pre-tax income was $1.7 billion, up $592 million from the second quarter. The increase was primarily due to higher realized margins and strong utilization. Realized margins increased due to higher market crack spreads, partially offset by inventory hedge impacts, lower secondary product margins and lower Gulf Coast clean product realizations. Inventory hedges and losses from secondary products mainly reflect the impact of rising crude prices during the quarter. These market factors negatively impacted capture rate, which was 66% in the quarter. Marketing and Specialties adjusted third quarter pre-tax income was $633 million, a slight decrease of $11 million from the previous quarter, reflecting continued strong margins.
The Corporate and Other segment’s adjusted pre-tax costs were $59 million higher than the previous quarter. The increase was mainly due to higher net interest expense related to acquiring DCP Midstream’s public common units on June 15 as well as employee-related expenses. Our adjusted effective tax rate was 24%. The impact of non-controlling interest was improved compared to the prior quarter and reflects a lower non-controlling interest since our acquisition of DCP Midstream public common units. Slide 11 shows the change in cash during the third quarter. We started the quarter with a $3 billion cash balance. Cash from operations was $2.4 billion, excluding working capital. During the quarter, we funded $358 million of pension plan contributions, which comes out of cash from operations.
That was a working capital benefit of $285 million. Year-to-date working capital is a use of around $2 billion, primarily related to inventory that we expect to mostly reverse by year-end. We received $280 million from asset dispositions, mainly reflecting the sale of our interest in South Texas Gateway Terminal. Total proceeds from asset dispositions of $370 million through the third quarter of 2023. We funded $855 million of capital spending. This includes $260 million for the acquisition of a U.S. West Coast marketing business. We repaid approximately $500 million of debt, mostly reflecting lower borrowings on DCP Midstream’s credit facilities. Additionally, we returned $1.2 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends.
Our ending cash balance was $3.5 billion. This concludes my review of the financial and operating results. Next, I’ll cover a few outlook items. In Chemicals, we expect the fourth quarter global O&P utilization rate to be in the mid-90s. In Refining, we expect the fourth quarter worldwide crude utilization rate to be in the low-90s and turnaround expenses to be between $90 million and $110 million. We anticipate fourth quarter Corporate and Other costs to come in between $280 million and $300 million. Now we will open the line for questions, after which Mark will make closing comments.
Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Neil Mehta from Goldman Sachs, your line is now open. Please ask your question.
Neil Mehta: Thank you. Good morning, team. This was very helpful, particularly the commentary on the strategic priorities. And so I want to – on the bullet about maintaining financial strength and flexibility, you talked about moving from $3 billion to $4 billion of EBITDA growth and greater than $3 billion of non-core asset dispositions. So wondering if you could take some time to talk about what are the key drivers of the move from $3 billion to $4 billion? And then as you identify non-core asset sales, what are some of the parameters that you’re evaluating as we think about what assets could be part of that discussion?
