diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 55be2138..a5faa2e0 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ list(APPEND LINK_LIBRARIES ${BML_LDFLAGS})
 set(BLAS_VENDOR ""
   CACHE STRING "If set, the preferred BLAS/LAPACK vendor. Possible choices: {Intel,MKL,ACML}")
 
+set(BML_OPENMP TRUE CACHE BOOL "Whether the bml was built with OpenMP")
 if(BLAS_VENDOR STREQUAL "Intel" OR BLAS_VENDOR STREQUAL "MKL")
   message(STATUS "Attempting to use Intel's BLAS/LAPACK (MKL)")
   if(CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "Intel")
diff --git a/build_scaling.sh b/build_scaling.sh
index e2e1a9cf..ee3e66ce 100755
--- a/build_scaling.sh
+++ b/build_scaling.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ else
     export CXX=${CXX:=g++}
 fi
 
+export BML_OPENMP=${BML_OPENMP:=yes}
 export PROGRESS_OPENMP=${PROGRESS_OPENMP:=yes}
 export PROGRESS_GRAPHLIB=${PROGRESS_GRAPHLIB:=yes}
 export PROGRESS_TESTING=${PROGRESS_TESTING:=yes}