in 2018, $1.0 billion in 2017 and $0.9 billion in 2016. Cash provided by investing activities included proceeds and deposits related to asset sales of $2.0 billion in 2018, $4.9 billion in 2017 and $3.2 billion in 2016.

Restricted cash of $1.1 billion and $1.1 billion at December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively, was held in cash and short-term marketable securities and recorded as “Deferred charges and other assets” and “Prepaid expenses and other current assets” on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. These amounts are generally associated with upstream abandonment activities, tax payments, funds held in escrow for tax-deferred exchanges and refundable deposits related to pending asset sales.

Dividends Dividends paid to common stockholders were $8.5 billion in 2018, $8.1 billion in 2017 and $8.0 billion in 2016.

Debt and Capital Lease Obligations Total debt and capital lease obligations were $34.5 billion at December 31, 2018, down from $38.8 billion at year-end 2017.

The $4.3 billion decrease in total debt and capital lease obligations during 2018 was primarily due to the repayment of long-term notes totaling $6.7 billion as they matured during 2018, partly offset by an increase in commercial paper. The company’s debt and capital lease obligations due within one year, consisting primarily of commercial paper, redeemable long-term obligations and the current portion of long-term debt, totaled $15.6 billion at December 31, 2018, compared with $15.2 billion at year-end 2017. Of these amounts, $9.9 billion and $10.0 billion were reclassified to long-term debt at the end of 2018 and 2017, respectively.

At year-end 2018, settlement of these obligations was not expected to require the use of working capital in 2019, as the company had the intent and the ability, as evidenced by committed credit facilities, to refinance them on a long-term basis.

Chevron has an automatic shelf registration statement that expires in May 2021 for an unspecified amount of nonconvertible debt securities issued or guaranteed by the company.

The major debt rating agencies routinely evaluate the company’s debt, and the company’s cost of borrowing can increase or decrease depending on these debt ratings. The company has outstanding public bonds issued by Chevron Corporation and Texaco Capital Inc. All of these securities are the obligations of, or guaranteed by, Chevron Corporation and are rated AA by Standard and Poor’s Corporation and Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service. The company’s U.S. commercial paper is rated A-1+ by Standard and Poor’s and P-1 by Moody’s. All of these ratings denote high-quality, investment-grade securities.

The company’s future debt level is dependent primarily on results of operations, cash that may be generated from asset dispositions, the capital program and shareholder distributions. Based on its high-quality debt ratings, the company believes that it has substantial borrowing capacity to meet unanticipated cash requirements. During extended periods of low prices for crude oil and natural gas and narrow margins for refined products and commodity chemicals, the company can also modify capital spending plans and discontinue or curtail the