The kinetic behavior of partial oxidation of methane to syngas over a LiLaNiO/gamma -Al2O3 catalyst was investigated under steady-state conditions. Under kinetic control, syngas, to a large extent, is formed via a direct partial oxidation (DPO) scheme. CO and CO2 are formed in parallel by oxidation reaction over the catalyst. The active sites in the kinetically controlled regime are different from those in the non-kinetic regime, thus the CO selectivity in the former may not increase with temperature.