This paper presents the results of a study of the methane-deuterium exchange reaction for a range of metal oxides. Interestingly, particularly with respect to their potential dehydrogenation role in other catalytic systems, Ga2O3 was found to be the most active by a considerable margin followed by ZnO. The results indicate that the oxide basicity may be an important factor in the activation of methane, although basicity arguments cannot be used to rationalise the dataset as a whole.