diff --git a/easybuild/easyblocks/p/petsc.py b/easybuild/easyblocks/p/petsc.py
index a672b79489..53ee9c79bc 100644
--- a/easybuild/easyblocks/p/petsc.py
+++ b/easybuild/easyblocks/p/petsc.py
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
 from easybuild.tools.build_log import EasyBuildError
 from easybuild.tools.filetools import symlink, apply_regex_substitutions
 from easybuild.tools.modules import get_software_root, get_software_version
-from easybuild.tools.run import run_cmd
+from easybuild.tools.run import run_shell_cmd
 from easybuild.tools.systemtools import get_shared_lib_ext
 
 NO_MPI_CXX_EXT_FLAGS = '-DOMPI_SKIP_MPICXX -DMPICH_SKIP_MPICXX'
@@ -167,13 +167,13 @@ def configure_step(self):
             if self.with_python:
 
                 # enable numpy support, but only if numpy is available
-                (_, ec) = run_cmd("python -c 'import numpy'", log_all=True, simple=False)
-                if ec == 0:
+                res = run_shell_cmd("python -c 'import numpy'", fail_on_error=False)
+                if res.exit_code == 0:
                     self.cfg.update('configopts', '--with-numpy=1')
 
                 # enable mpi4py support, but only if mpi4py is available
-                (_, ec) = run_cmd("python -c 'import mpi4py'", log_all=True, simple=False)
-                if ec == 0:
+                res = run_shell_cmd("python -c 'import mpi4py'", fail_on_error=False)
+                if res.exit_code == 0:
                     with_mpi4py_opt = '--with-mpi4py'
                     if self.cfg['shared_libs'] and with_mpi4py_opt not in self.cfg['configopts']:
                         self.cfg.update('configopts', '%s=1' % with_mpi4py_opt)
@@ -288,7 +288,8 @@ def configure_step(self):
 
                 # run configure without --prefix (required)
                 cmd = "%s ./configure %s" % (self.cfg['preconfigopts'], self.cfg['configopts'])
-                (out, _) = run_cmd(cmd, log_all=True, simple=False)
+                res = run_shell_cmd(cmd)
+                out = res.output
             else:
                 out = super(EB_PETSc, self).configure_step()
 
@@ -327,7 +328,7 @@ def configure_step(self):
                     self.cfg.update('configopts', '%s=1 %s-dir=%s' % (withdep, withdep, deproot))
 
             cmd = "./config/configure.py %s" % self.get_cfg('configopts')
-            run_cmd(cmd, log_all=True, simple=True)
+            run_shell_cmd(cmd)
 
         # Make sure to set test_parallel before self.cfg['parallel'] is set to None
         if self.cfg['test_parallel'] is None and self.cfg['parallel']:
@@ -356,7 +357,8 @@ def test_step(self):
 
         if self.cfg['runtest']:
             cmd = "%s make %s %s %s" % (self.cfg['pretestopts'], paracmd, self.cfg['runtest'], self.cfg['testopts'])
-            (out, _) = run_cmd(cmd, log_all=True, simple=False)
+            res = run_shell_cmd(cmd)
+            out = res.output
 
             return out