A 2% Ru-promoted 15% Co/Al2O3 catalyst was tested after reduction and after being subjected to oxidation-reduction cycles. The catalysts were characterized over four oxidation-reduction cycles by XANES/EXAFS, TPR, HRTEM, and EDS elemental mapping. The oxidation-reduction treatments were found to assist in sintering the metallic clusters to a larger size, and to promote mixing on at least the order of the nanoscale. The larger crystallites in closer proximity to the Ru promoter led to a more facile reduction of the cobalt crystallites. In addition, a catalyst exposed to two oxidation-reduction cycles resulted in slightly higher conversion, higher a-value product, slightly lower methane selectivity, and greater stability over a reduced freshly calcined catalyst.