China University of Petroleum on Thursday inaugurated the campus in Karamay, a renowned oil town in Xinjiang.(CNS/Zhang Bao)

URUMQI, Dec. 10 -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday inaugurated the region's first national level university.

China University of Petroleum on Thursday inaugurated the campus in Karamay, a renowned oil town in Xinjiang.

The university is the first higher-learning institute directly under the Ministry of Education to establish a campus in Xinjiang. It will help improve innovation and economic competitiveness in Xinjiang, said Arken Tuniyaz, vice chairman of Xinjiang regional government, at the inauguration ceremony.

The campus, covering 480 hectares, cost 4.3 billion yuan (668 million U.S.dollars). It will begin to enroll students for the academic year beginning September 2016. In five to eight years, it is expected to have 8,000 students.

Karamay was the location of China's first large-scale oilfield 60 years ago. Since then, the oil and gas industry has been a major industry in Xinjiang.

The oilfield, operated by China's top oil and natural gas producer PetroChina, has generated 300 million tonnes of crude oil and contributed over 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas to national energy supply.

Maoliti Mansuer, director of the Ethnic Education Department of the Ministry of Education, said the decision to build the petroleum school was made at the second central work conference on Xinjiang in May last year. It is expected to link in with the "Silk Road Economic Belt" construction and energy development strategy.