fluids into the well bore in all of these methods the gas injection is done a depth sufficient to lift formation fluid to the surface and allow for the inflow of additional formation fluid into the well bore any combination equipment and methods can be used with the present invention as long as it meets these two basic criteria in another embodiment the present invention is a method for recovering oil from a gas lifted oil well including the step of injecting a lift gas into the oil well any lift gas known to be useful to those of ordinary skill in the art of using gas lift recovery methods can be used with the present invention one gas commonly used as a lift gas with the present invention is natural gas preferably that recovered from the same formation as the well subject to the gas lift method other gases can also be used including those selected from the group consisting of carbon dioxide methane ethane propane nitrogen and mixtures thereof any gas that is not detrimental to the formation such as oxygen can be used with the present invention in yet another embodiment the present invention is a method for recovering oil from a gas lifted oil well including the step of injecting a surfactant into the oil well the surfactants useful with the present invention function to reduce the surface tension between the lift gas and the formation fluid being lifted to the surface and or create a foam.