Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are plowing cash into U.S. Treasuries at a more than 50 percent faster rate than all other foreign investors, an unintended benefit of oil prices above $100 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.

OPEC nations boosted their net purchases of government debt by $43.3 billion, or 20 percent, in the 12 months ended Jan. 31, compared with a 13 percent increase for non-OPEC foreign holdings, according to U.S. Treasury Department data, Bloomberg said.

With prices up $26 a barrel since Sept. 30, producers have an additional $780 million in profits every day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

International investors, which own about $5 trillion, or half of the marketable U.S. government debt outstanding, are key to President Barack Obama’s administration financing a budget deficit forecast to exceed $1 trillion for a fourth year, Bloomberg said.

OPEC’s purchases may help temper a plunge in Treasuries after yields surged last week by the most since January 2009 amid gains in jobs, retail sales and manufacturing, Bloomberg said.

The OPEC nations — Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela — provide about 44 percent of the world’s oil. They will earn $1.105 trillion in 2012, up from an estimated $1.01 trillion last year, which was a 30 percent increase from $778 billion in 2010, according to government data.

The OPEC countries held $258.8 billion of the $10.428 trillion of Treasuries outstanding as of Jan. 31, up from $215.5 billion a year earlier and $211.9 billion in January 2010, Bloomberg said.