diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/intel-oneapi-mkl/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/intel-oneapi-mkl/package.py
index 70862a684b3..4dcb107dd12 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/intel-oneapi-mkl/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/intel-oneapi-mkl/package.py
@@ -103,6 +103,14 @@ class IntelOneapiMkl(IntelOneApiLibraryPackage):
     variant(
         "cluster", default=False, description="Build with cluster support: scalapack, blacs, etc"
     )
+    variant(
+        "mpi_family",
+        default="none",
+        values=("none", "mpich", "openmpi"),
+        description="MPI family",
+        multi=False,
+    )
+
     variant(
         "threads",
         default="none",
@@ -184,16 +192,23 @@ def _find_mkl_libs(self, shared):
         if self.spec.satisfies("+cluster"):
             if any(
                 self.spec.satisfies(m)
-                for m in ["^intel-oneapi-mpi", "^intel-mpi", "^mpich", "^cray-mpich"]
+                for m in [
+                    "^intel-oneapi-mpi",
+                    "^intel-mpi",
+                    "^mpich",
+                    "^cray-mpich",
+                    "mpi_family=mpich",
+                ]
             ):
                 libs.append(self._xlp64_lib("libmkl_blacs_intelmpi"))
-            elif self.spec.satisfies("^openmpi"):
+            elif any(self.spec.satisfies(m) for m in ["^openmpi", "mpi_family=openmpi"]):
                 libs.append(self._xlp64_lib("libmkl_blacs_openmpi"))
             else:
                 raise RuntimeError(
                     (
-                        "intel-oneapi-mpi +cluster requires one of "
-                        "^intel-oneapi-mpi, ^intel-mpi, ^mpich, or ^openmpi"
+                        "intel-oneapi-mpi +cluster requires one of ^intel-oneapi-mpi, "
+                        "^intel-mpi, ^mpich, ^cray-mpich, mpi_family=mpich, ^openmpi, "
+                        "or mpi_family=openmpi"
                     )
                 )