Biomass steam gasification produces a blend of H-2, CO, CH4 and CO2, designated as syngas. Syngas can be further combusted using fluidizable oxygen carriers (OC). This operation which is known as Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC), is valuable for syngas combustion as it involves nickel oxidation and nickel reduction, which are both exothermic reactions. To improve syngas CLC and establish its application, a new Ni-based oxygen carrier was studied using a Co and La modified gamma-Al2O3 support. This type of OC considerably limits the NiAl2O4 formation. A Highly Performing Oxygen Carrier (HPOC) was engineered using a special preparation methodology to exclude NiAl2O4 species formation. The evaluation of this HPOC was developed using the fluidized CREC Riser Simulator reactor at mild CLC 550-650 degrees C temperatures. Reaction conditions employed ranged from 2 to 40 s and used a 0.5-1 fuel to oxygen stoichiometric supply ratio (iv). It is shown that under these conditions, the HPOC demonstrates a stable performance, yielding 75-92% CO2, displaying a 1.84-2.75 wt% (gO(2)/gOC) oxygen transport capacity with 40-60% solid phase oxygen conversion.