Classiq and Israel Natural Gas Lines Ltd. (INGL) have announced results from research applying quantum optimization to natural gas transmission planning. The work included running a reduced version of the problem on IonQ's Forte-1 quantum computer, according to an announcement covered by HPCwire.
The project appears aimed at understanding whether quantum optimization can eventually help plan natural gas networks more effectively than classical approaches. The companies did not claim a full-scale production deployment; instead, the announced milestone is the execution of a scaled-down instance on real quantum hardware.
Because there is only one source, no independent comparison is available. Still, the announcement suggests that quantum optimization is moving from abstract benchmarks toward domain-specific infrastructure problems, even if practical, large-scale use remains at an early stage.