diff --git a/ClickHouse.Client/ADO/ClickHouseConnection.cs b/ClickHouse.Client/ADO/ClickHouseConnection.cs
index a8dea22..cae1bc6 100644
--- a/ClickHouse.Client/ADO/ClickHouseConnection.cs
+++ b/ClickHouse.Client/ADO/ClickHouseConnection.cs
@@ -218,15 +218,16 @@ internal static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> HandleError(HttpResponseMessage
             activity.SetSuccess();
             return response;
         }
-        activity.SetStatus(ActivityStatusCode.Error, response?.ReasonPhrase ?? string.Empty);
-        var ex = new Exception($"Error '{response.StatusCode}' reading server response: {response.ReasonPhrase}");
+        string description = response?.ReasonPhrase ?? string.Empty;
+        activity?.SetStatus(ActivityStatusCode.Error, description);
+        var ex = new Exception($"Error '{response?.StatusCode}' reading server response: {description}");
         try
         {
             await response.Content.LoadIntoBufferAsync(4096);
             var stream = (MemoryStream)await response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync();
             var error = new StreamReader(stream).ReadToEnd();
             ex = ClickHouseServerException.FromServerResponse(error, query);
-            activity.SetException(ex);
+            activity?.SetException(ex);
         }
         finally
         {