A series of Ni-Ce-Al composite oxides with various Ni molar contents were synthesized via the refluxed co-precipitation method and used for natural gas reforming of CO2 (NGRC) for syngas production. The effect of Ni molar content, reaction temperature, feed gas ratio and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) on the Ni-Ce-Al catalytic performance was investigated. The Ni10CeAl catalyst was selected to undergo 30 h stability test and the conversion of CH4 and CO2 decreased by 2.8% and 2.6%, respectively. The characterization of the reduced and used NiioCeAl catalyst was performed using BET, H-2-TPR, in-situ XRD, TEM, and TGA-DTG techniques. The in-situ XRD results revealed that Ce2O3, CeO2 and CeAlO3 coexisted in the NiioCeAl catalyst after reduction at 850 degrees C for 2 h. The results of the TEM analysis revealed that the Ni particle size increased after the NGRC reaction, which mainly caused the catalyst deactivation. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.