Washington ? Government work granted without competition to a Halliburton Co. subsidiary to fight oil well fires in Iraq could be worth as much as $7 billion over two years, but just a fraction of that has been spent, the Army Corps of Engineers has disclosed.

The deal also allows Halliburton subsidiary KBR, an engineering and construction company, to earn another 7 percent in profit. But as of last week, only $50.3 million had been spent. The $7 billion value was based on a worst-case scenario that hasn’t occurred. Coalition forces control all of Iraq’s oil wells, and only one fire remains.

The corps released the information in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, who requested details.

Waxman and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., have asked for an investigation into how the Bush administration is awarding contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, which could cost as much as $100 billion. They also want the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to determine whether Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company may have received favorable treatment in their Pentagon contracts.

Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, the Corps of Engineers commander, said in his letter to Waxman that KBR was asked to develop plans to restore Iraq’s oil infrastructure based on an existing contract with the company.

“To invite other contractors to compete to perform a highly classified requirement” that KBR already was involved in “would have been a wasteful duplication of effort” that would have delayed war planning, Flowers said.