diff --git a/includes/sitealias.inc b/includes/sitealias.inc
index fce233d811..70015bc8e9 100644
--- a/includes/sitealias.inc
+++ b/includes/sitealias.inc
@@ -1646,7 +1646,7 @@ function drush_convert_db_from_db_url($db_url) {
       );
       $url = (object)array_map('urldecode', $url);
       $db_spec = array(
-        'driver'   => $url->scheme == 'mysqli' ? 'mysql' : $url->scheme,
+        'driver'   => $url->scheme == 'mysqli' && extension_loaded('mysql') ? 'mysql' : $url->scheme,
         'username' => $url->user,
         'password' => $url->pass,
         'host' => $url->host,
diff --git a/lib/Drush/Sql/Sqlmysqli.php b/lib/Drush/Sql/Sqlmysqli.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..52d5fabae8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/Drush/Sql/Sqlmysqli.php
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Drush\Sql;
+
+class Sqlmysqli extends Sqlmysql {
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file