diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index d5e2ebe5..7a379f6e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 REQUIREMENTS = [
     "ecl>=2.9",
     "numpy",
-    "pandas<1.5.0",
+    "pandas",
     "pyyaml>=5.1",
 ]
 
diff --git a/src/fmu/ensemble/realization.py b/src/fmu/ensemble/realization.py
index 750bc133..9b31d35a 100644
--- a/src/fmu/ensemble/realization.py
+++ b/src/fmu/ensemble/realization.py
@@ -525,12 +525,14 @@ def load_status(self):
         errorjobs = status[errorcolumns[0]] != ""
 
         # Merge any error strings:
-        status.loc[errorjobs, "errorstring"] = (
+        error_string = (
             status.loc[errorjobs, errorcolumns]
             .astype(str)
             .apply(" ".join, axis=1)
             .apply(str.strip)
         )
+        status["errorstring"] = np.nan
+        status.loc[errorjobs, "errorstring"] = error_string
         status.drop(errorcolumns, axis=1, inplace=True)
 
         # Delete potential unwanted row