Quantinuum and bp Collaborate Towards Solving Fundamental Wave Physics Challenges with Quantum Computing

BROOMFIELD, Colo., May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantinuum, a leading quantum computing company, today announced the launch of a new quantum project in collaboration with bp, the global integrated energy company, aimed at modernizing how the energy sector maps the Earth's subsurface to locate oil and gas resources.

Few tasks in today's oil and gas sector demand as much raw computational power as seismic imaging. Building on a successful pilot that demonstrated feasibility, bp and Quantinuum are now scaling their approach to simulate more complex subsurface properties.

"This has the potential to be a very important industrial use case for quantum computing," said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. "By enabling higher-fidelity data at a lower computational cost than classical computing, we can potentially provide a more efficient path for energy exploration."

On classical computers, computational requirements, such as memory, scale with spatial resolution, so doubling the resolution of a seismic image can require up to double the computational resources. By contrast, in an ideal scenario, a quantum computer could theoretically achieve the same resolution gains with the addition of a single qubit,^[i] potentially compressing simulation timelines while also reducing energy consumption.

Hybrid quantum-classical approaches have the potential to further optimize performance, with quantum processors tackling the most demanding calculations while classical systems manage data logic, allowing results to remain grounded in real-world physics.

If successful, this project could demonstrate that quantum computing can help solve real-world bottlenecks in global infrastructure and resource management.

About Quantinuum

Quantinuum is a leading quantum computing company offering a full-stack platform designed to make quantum computing deployable in real-world environments. The company has commercially deployed multiple generations of quantum systems built on the well-established QCCD architecture, which it has implemented with novel designs and capabilities to achieve the industry's highest accuracy levels based on average two-qubit gate fidelity.^[ii] Quantinuum has active engagements with market leaders across pharmaceuticals, material science, financial services, and government and industrial markets.

The company has a global workforce of approximately 700 employees, including top scientists and researchers. Over 70% of its technology team hold PhDs and Master's degrees. Quantinuum's headquarters is in Broomfield, Colorado, with additional facilities across the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Qatar, and Singapore. 

For more information, please visit www.quantinuum.com. 

^[i] Adding one qubit doubles the dimensionality of the quantum state space, as referenced in "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information" by Isaac L. Chuang and Michael A. Nielsen, Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition (2010) 
^[ii] As of December 31, 2025.

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