diff --git a/env/rhel7/x86_64/sysconfigs/packages.yaml b/env/rhel7/x86_64/sysconfigs/packages.yaml
index 6c509e7..c7c7335 100644
--- a/env/rhel7/x86_64/sysconfigs/packages.yaml
+++ b/env/rhel7/x86_64/sysconfigs/packages.yaml
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 packages:
   all:
     compiler: [gcc@=12.3.0, gcc@4.8.5, oneapi, nvhpc]
+    prefer:
+    - spec: '^openmpi'
     providers:
       blas: [openblas, intel-oneapi-mkl, nvhpc]
       lapack: [openblas, intel-oneapi-mkl, nvhpc]