diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
index c99a578fc89..15b9b77ba54 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
@@ -251,7 +251,7 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
                 '--with-superlu_dist=0'
             )
 
-        configure('--prefix=%s' % prefix, *options)
+        python('configure', '--prefix=%s' % prefix, *options)
 
         # PETSc has its own way of doing parallel make.
         make('MAKE_NP=%s' % make_jobs, parallel=False)