diff --git a/src/ert/config/ert_config.py b/src/ert/config/ert_config.py
index 858bd31ba82..16280fd36d4 100644
--- a/src/ert/config/ert_config.py
+++ b/src/ert/config/ert_config.py
@@ -132,7 +132,9 @@ def __post_init__(self) -> None:
             if self.user_config_file
             else os.getcwd()
         )
-        self.observations: Dict[str, xr.Dataset] = self.enkf_obs.datasets
+        self.observations: Dict[str, xr.Dataset] = (
+            self.enkf_obs.datasets if self.enkf_obs else {}
+        )
 
     @staticmethod
     def with_plugins(