The selective methanation of CO in a H2-rich gas stream has been investigated with nickel catalysts including synthetic nickel-containing smectite (SM(Ni)) catalysts undoped and doped with platinum in small quantities and conventional nickel catalysts on SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, and MgO. The nickel content in SM(Ni) and the nickel loading in the other catalysts were the same, being 35 wt.-%. The CO conversion with SM(Ni) was smaller than those with the conventional supported nickel catalysts at temperatures of 150 ºC -300 ºC. However, the former showed the higher selectivity to the methanation of CO of > 95% at 250 ºC or below compared to the latter catalysts. The low activity of SM(Ni) was ascribed to a small area of exposed nickel species. The area of exposed nickel species was improved by doping a reduction promoter of platinum to SM(Ni), resulting in an increase in the activity while keeping the high selectivity to the CO methanation. The influence of reduction temperature and platinum loading on the activity and selectivity was investigated.