Catalysts with cobalt as the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) metal and nickel and/or rhenium as promoters on alumina of different pore sizes, a stabilized alumina, silica, or titania as supports were investigated for activity, selectivity, and deactivation up to 800 h of operation in a fixed-bed reactor. From the observed selectivities, there is no indication that nickel as a promoter with a loading up to 5 wt % influences the selectivities to higher hydrocarbons for low-temperature (<250 degrees C) cobalt FT synthesis. Nickel is found to have a profound impact on the catalytic activity, and the start of run activity, steady-state level, and deactivation rate are influenced. The freshly reduced catalyst is nearly inactive, but the activity increases rapidly to a stable level which is significantly higher than for catalysts without nickel. It appears that nickel can substitute rhenium as a reduction and activity promoter. The steady-state activity is maintained constant for a prolonged time, but expected deactivation commences after ca. 150 h time on stream.