diff --git a/src/remote.c b/src/remote.c
index 948c755bb..4bba1d57e 100644
--- a/src/remote.c
+++ b/src/remote.c
@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ int git_remote_load(git_remote **out, git_repository *repo, const char *name)
 	if ((error = get_optional_config(config, &buf, NULL, (void *)&val)) < 0)
 		goto cleanup;
 
-	if (val) {
+	if (val && strlen(val) > 0) {
 		remote->pushurl = git__strdup(val);
 		GITERR_CHECK_ALLOC(remote->pushurl);
 	}
diff --git a/tests-clar/network/remote/remotes.c b/tests-clar/network/remote/remotes.c
index dec646526..e356526ed 100644
--- a/tests-clar/network/remote/remotes.c
+++ b/tests-clar/network/remote/remotes.c
@@ -367,8 +367,14 @@ void test_network_remote_remotes__can_load_with_an_empty_url(void)
 
 	cl_git_pass(git_remote_load(&remote, _repo, "empty-remote-url"));
 
+	cl_assert(remote->url == NULL);
+	cl_assert(remote->pushurl == NULL);
+
 	cl_git_fail(git_remote_connect(remote, GIT_DIRECTION_FETCH));
 
+	cl_assert(giterr_last() != NULL);
+	cl_assert(giterr_last()->klass == GITERR_INVALID);
+
 	git_remote_free(remote);
 }
 
diff --git a/tests-clar/resources/testrepo.git/config b/tests-clar/resources/testrepo.git/config
index 904a4e3f3..1264f6ea7 100644
--- a/tests-clar/resources/testrepo.git/config
+++ b/tests-clar/resources/testrepo.git/config
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 	url = git://github.com/libgit2/libgit2
 [remote "empty-remote-url"]
 	url = 
-
+	pushurl =
 [remote "test_with_pushurl"]
 	url = git://github.com/libgit2/fetchlibgit2
 	pushurl = git://github.com/libgit2/pushlibgit2