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There is abundant supply of light alkanes and relatively few routes of converting them to more valuable products. Although CH4 predominates in natural gas, it also contains C2H6, C3H8 and C4H10 (from 5 % to 30% ), and with C2H6 as the most abundant secondary component[1]. Partial oxidation of methane to syngas (CH4 +0.5O2 →CO + 2H2) over nickel-based catalysts has received intensive attention[2]and much research has been devoted to conversion of ethane to ethylene[3]. Ethylene has been shown to be formed from ethane by thermal dehydrogenation (C2H6 →C2H4 + H2) and oxidative dehydrogenation (C2H6 + 0. 5O2 →C2H4 + H2O). These processes are operated under severely fuel-rich conditions. The carbon-deposition and consequent deactivation of the catalysts are major problems, which leads to poor conversion of the above mentioned reactions. As an alternative strategy for the elaboration of ethane, little work on the partial oxidation of ethane (POE) to syngas over nickel-based catalysts has been reported. Provided it could be produced from C2H6with high selectivity and high conversion over nickel-based catalysts, syngas could be directly obtained from natural gas including CH4 and C2H6 with high selectivity and conversion. This may lead to better utilization of the light fractions from natural gas and refineries. In the present paper, POE to syngas over nickel-based catalysts was investigated.