D-Wave, Aramco Extend Geophysical Optimization Agreement

Quantum computing systems company D-Wave Quantum has extended its agreement with energy and chemicals international Aramco to manage geophysical optimization problems through quantum technologies.

Energy companies use intensive seismic imaging, an ultrasound-like technology, to map geological strata beneath the surface and capture subsurface images to help find hydrocarbons.

Aramco Research Center in the Netherlands has been working with D-Wave’s quantum technologies for the past two years to solve complex optimization problems for this computationally intensive process.

The team has created its first subsurface maps using tens of gigabytes of seismic data as input. Under the new agreement, they plan to process a terabyte of seismic data – around 100 times as much – using D-Wave’s 1,200-qubit Advantage2 quantum computer in 2024.

“I’m excited to see how far we’ve been able to push quantum technologies to tackle such a large optimization problem as subsurface imaging,” said Aramco Research Center Delft quantum applications lead Marcin Dukalski.

“We look forward to expanding our work with D-Wave, which will be centered on reaping even greater tangible benefits from the Advantage2 system.”

The Aramco researchers develop their own hybrid classical-quantum geophysical applications, accessing D-Wave’s quantum computers and hybrid solvers through the Leap quantum cloud service. They have demonstrated performance gains in time-to-solution and scale over classical solutions using D-Wave’s quantum technologies.

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“Together with Aramco, we are demonstrating our quantum technology’s ability to take on core data challenges in geophysical research,” said D-Wave chief development officer Trevor Lanting.

“We look forward to helping Aramco researchers maximize quantum’s positive impact on their computational challenges as they look to turn data into usable knowledge of the subsurface.”