diff --git a/src/util/virxml.c b/src/util/virxml.c
index ebe479f5d3..62bbafacd6 100644
--- a/src/util/virxml.c
+++ b/src/util/virxml.c
@@ -51,10 +51,8 @@ virXMLXPathContextNew(xmlDocPtr xml)
 {
     xmlXPathContextPtr ctxt;
 
-    if (!(ctxt = xmlXPathNewContext(xml))) {
-        virReportOOMError();
-        return NULL;
-    }
+    if (!(ctxt = xmlXPathNewContext(xml)))
+        abort();
 
     return ctxt;
 }