diff --git a/pkg/tsdb/prometheus/resource/resource.go b/pkg/tsdb/prometheus/resource/resource.go
index 9d9ca4a2154..5ff90575264 100644
--- a/pkg/tsdb/prometheus/resource/resource.go
+++ b/pkg/tsdb/prometheus/resource/resource.go
@@ -58,7 +58,11 @@ func (r *Resource) fetch(ctx context.Context, client *client.Client, req *backen
 
 	resp, err := client.QueryResource(ctx, req.Method, u.Path, u.Query())
 	if err != nil {
-		return resp.StatusCode, nil, err
+		statusCode := 500
+		if resp != nil {
+			statusCode = resp.StatusCode
+		}
+		return statusCode, nil, err
 	}
 
 	defer resp.Body.Close() //nolint (we don't care about the error being returned by resp.Body.Close())