HOUSTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's exports of crude

oil and fuel declined almost 9% last month following two large

power blackouts and equipment outages at state energy company

PDVSA's crude upgraders, according to ship monitoring data and

documents.

The OPEC-member's oil output and exports have recovered

somewhat from very low figures between 2020 and 2022, but a

long-standing lack of investment, U.S. sanctions and frequent

operational problems continue to limit what PDVSA can do to

raise output capacity.

A large power blackout in most of the country's territory in

late August forced suspension of refineries, oil terminals and

the four crude upgraders that process the Orinoco Belt's extra

heavy oil through early September. A second interruption days

later and equipment malfunctions disabled three upgraders again

for several days, the documents showed.

A total of 42 vessels departed Venezuelan waters in

September, carrying an average of 842,600 barrels per day (bpd)

of crude and fuel and 267,000 metric tons of oil byproducts and

petrochemicals, according to the data.

That was below the previous month's strong levels, but above

the same period a year ago. PDVSA and its joint ventures

exported 925,000 bpd of crude and fuel in August, the highest

monthly figure since early 2020.

Shipments to Asia led the September exports with 510,000

bpd, followed by the United States, which received about 212,000

bpd of crude sent by Chevron ( CVX ) from its production joint

ventures with PDVSA. Exports to Europe by Spain's Repsol

rose to 97,000 bpd, while supply to Cuba fell to some

22,000 bpd.

Exports to North America and Europe have been on the rise

this year under individual authorizations granted by the U.S.

Treasury Department to energy companies including Chevron ( CVX ),

Repsol, Eni and Maurel & Prom.

The country also has sought to keep shipments to China

stable, with a large portion of exports passing through Malaysia

for ship-to-ship transfers, the vessel tracking data showed.

Venezuela also imported 67,000 bpd of fuel and diluents in

September, below the 90,000 bpd of August, the data showed.