This present work reports on the heat losses associated with the upward flow of hot air, water, and CO2 in a production well. The heat losses considered here are the frictional heat loss, the gravitational heat loss, the Joule-Thomson effect, and the conduction heat loss to the surrounding rock formation. These heat losses were characterized using the mass flow rate, the operation time as variable parameters while the surrounding formation was assumed to have constant properties with a linear geothermal gradient. The results show that, the frictional heat loss was small while the influences of the others depended on the flow conditions and the operation time. For water, the Joule-Thomson effect was a heating effect and its magnitude was comparable to that due to the gravitational effect. The conduction heat loss was dominant for all situations. For air as well as CO2, the Joule-Thomson effects were the cooling effects. For low mass flow rates, the conduction heat loss was the dominant heat loss during the initial stages of the operation and the combined heat losses due to the gravitational and the Joule-Thomson effects became dominant during the later times. For high mass flow rates, throughout the operation life time, the gravitational and the Joule-Thomson effects were the dominant heat losses that control the temperature of air and CO2 in the production well. Published by Elsevier Ltd.