diff --git a/src/surfMesh/writers/surfaceWriter.C b/src/surfMesh/writers/surfaceWriter.C
index 2198ff13865c1b172e3c75c02bd5b69f8a100008..6aa75ff439c7514669af3da9c6991fbf7d2786e1 100644
--- a/src/surfMesh/writers/surfaceWriter.C
+++ b/src/surfMesh/writers/surfaceWriter.C
@@ -504,7 +504,12 @@ Foam::tmp<Foam::Field<Type>> Foam::surfaceWriter::mergeFieldTemplate
         globalIndex::gatherOp(fld, allFld);
 
         // Renumber (point data) to correspond to merged points
-        if (Pstream::master() && this->isPointData())
+        if
+        (
+            Pstream::master()
+         && this->isPointData()
+         && merged_.pointsMap().size()
+        )
         {
             inplaceReorder(merged_.pointsMap(), allFld);
             allFld.resize(merged_.points().size());