This paper reports on an attempt to estimate formation temperature from the inlet and outlet mud temperatures while drilling.

We have modified the well bore thermal simulator "GEOTEMP2,î which was originally developed by Mondy and Duda (1 984), in order to take into account lost circulation and convective flow within the formation. Our examination confirmed that estimated outlet mud temperatures match observed data quite well.

Accordingly, we are now developing a numerical inversion code (named ìMWDTEMP2î) for estimating formation temperatures from the outlet mud and bottom-hole temperatures while drilling (Takai et al.,1994, Takahashi et al., 1996). Preliminary examination reveals that formation temperature can be estimated from mud temperatures and ,if available, bottom-hole temperatures.

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