diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
index 75959b5061b..1d12bd1fb59 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
@@ -2739,8 +2739,9 @@ public class HRegion implements HeapSize { // , Writable{
     MonitoredTask status = TaskMonitor.get().createStatus(msg);
 
     status.setStatus("Opening logs");
-    HLog.Reader reader = HLog.getReader(this.fs, edits, conf);
+    HLog.Reader reader = null;
     try {
+      reader = HLog.getReader(this.fs, edits, conf);
       long currentEditSeqId = minSeqId;
       long firstSeqIdInLog = -1;
       long skippedEdits = 0;
@@ -2871,8 +2872,10 @@ public class HRegion implements HeapSize { // , Writable{
       LOG.debug(msg);
       return currentEditSeqId;
     } finally {
-      reader.close();
       status.cleanup();
+      if (reader != null) {  
+         reader.close();
+      }
     }
   }