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Gaussian-2 molecular orbital calculations predict that the insertions of boron into the CH, OH and CO bonds of methanol to form CH2(BH)OH, CH3OBH, and CH3BOH are exothermic by 56.3, 92.8, and 115.9 kcal mol-1, respectively. The dissociation of CH3OBH into CH3 and HBO has a low activation energy of 17.6 kcal mol-1. Although the loss of a methyl hydrogen from CH3BOH has a moderate barrier (53.5 kcal mol-1), the elimination of its hydroxyl hydrogen to yield CH3BO has only a very low endothermicity (4.8 kcal mol-1). CH3BO may eventually yield the final product CH2BO observed either by dehydrogenation with a high endothermicity of 100.2 kcal mol-1 or by 1,3-H shift to CH2BOH with a high barrier of 91.7 kcal mol-1 and subsequent dehydrogenation. Hence, these two paths via which CH2BO is formed are, energywise, almost equally probable.