diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c b/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c
index eb1dc8d75..79fb80b5a 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/planner/deparse_shard_query.c
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ RebuildQueryStrings(Job *workerJob)
 
 			query = copyObject(originalQuery);
 
-			RangeTblEntry *copiedInsertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTE(query);
+			RangeTblEntry *copiedInsertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError(query);
 			RangeTblEntry *copiedSubqueryRte = ExtractSelectRangeTableEntry(query);
 			Query *copiedSubquery = copiedSubqueryRte->subquery;
 
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/planner/insert_select_planner.c b/src/backend/distributed/planner/insert_select_planner.c
index 8256d8eb2..33736a5fd 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/planner/insert_select_planner.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/planner/insert_select_planner.c
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ CreateDistributedInsertSelectPlan(Query *originalQuery,
 	uint32 taskIdIndex = 1;     /* 0 is reserved for invalid taskId */
 	uint64 jobId = INVALID_JOB_ID;
 	DistributedPlan *distributedPlan = CitusMakeNode(DistributedPlan);
-	RangeTblEntry *insertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTE(originalQuery);
+	RangeTblEntry *insertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError(originalQuery);
 	RangeTblEntry *subqueryRte = ExtractSelectRangeTableEntry(originalQuery);
 	Oid targetRelationId = insertRte->relid;
 	CitusTableCacheEntry *targetCacheEntry = GetCitusTableCacheEntry(targetRelationId);
@@ -649,7 +649,7 @@ RouterModifyTaskForShardInterval(Query *originalQuery,
 								 DeferredErrorMessage **routerPlannerError)
 {
 	Query *copiedQuery = copyObject(originalQuery);
-	RangeTblEntry *copiedInsertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTE(copiedQuery);
+	RangeTblEntry *copiedInsertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError(copiedQuery);
 	RangeTblEntry *copiedSubqueryRte = ExtractSelectRangeTableEntry(copiedQuery);
 	Query *copiedSubquery = (Query *) copiedSubqueryRte->subquery;
 
@@ -1344,7 +1344,7 @@ CreateNonPushableInsertSelectPlan(uint64 planId, Query *parse, ParamListInfo bou
 	Query *insertSelectQuery = copyObject(parse);
 
 	RangeTblEntry *selectRte = ExtractSelectRangeTableEntry(insertSelectQuery);
-	RangeTblEntry *insertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTE(insertSelectQuery);
+	RangeTblEntry *insertRte = ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError(insertSelectQuery);
 	Oid targetRelationId = insertRte->relid;
 
 	DistributedPlan *distributedPlan = CitusMakeNode(DistributedPlan);
diff --git a/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_router_planner.c b/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_router_planner.c
index f980529d4..a912f442b 100644
--- a/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_router_planner.c
+++ b/src/backend/distributed/planner/multi_router_planner.c
@@ -508,7 +508,9 @@ ResultRelationOidForQuery(Query *query)
 
 
 /*
- * ExtractResultRelationRTE returns the table's resultRelation range table entry.
+ * ExtractResultRelationRTE returns the table's resultRelation range table
+ * entry. This returns NULL when there's no resultRelation, such as in a SELECT
+ * query.
  */
 RangeTblEntry *
 ExtractResultRelationRTE(Query *query)
@@ -522,6 +524,28 @@ ExtractResultRelationRTE(Query *query)
 }
 
 
+/*
+ * ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError returns the table's resultRelation range table
+ * entry and errors out if there's no result relation at all, e.g. like in a
+ * SELECT query.
+ *
+ * This is a separate function (instead of using missingOk), so static analysis
+ * reasons about NULL returns correctly.
+ */
+RangeTblEntry *
+ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError(Query *query)
+{
+	RangeTblEntry *relation = ExtractResultRelationRTE(query);
+	if (relation == NULL)
+	{
+		ereport(ERROR, (errmsg("no result relation could be found for the query"),
+						errhint("is this a SELECT query?")));
+	}
+
+	return relation;
+}
+
+
 /*
  * IsTidColumn gets a node and returns true if the node is a Var type of TID.
  */
diff --git a/src/include/distributed/multi_router_planner.h b/src/include/distributed/multi_router_planner.h
index 62f033fe4..cf1ffe311 100644
--- a/src/include/distributed/multi_router_planner.h
+++ b/src/include/distributed/multi_router_planner.h
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ extern Oid ExtractFirstCitusTableId(Query *query);
 extern RangeTblEntry * ExtractSelectRangeTableEntry(Query *query);
 extern Oid ModifyQueryResultRelationId(Query *query);
 extern RangeTblEntry * ExtractResultRelationRTE(Query *query);
+extern RangeTblEntry * ExtractResultRelationRTEOrError(Query *query);
 extern RangeTblEntry * ExtractDistributedInsertValuesRTE(Query *query);
 extern bool IsMultiRowInsert(Query *query);
 extern void AddShardIntervalRestrictionToSelect(Query *subqery,