Bridget Diakun
Senior Risk and Compliance Analyst, Lloyd’s List Intelligence
Bridget Diakun joined Lloyd’s List Intelligence in January 2022 as a data journalist. She initially worked on understanding the impact that the war in Ukraine had on commercial shipping in the Black and Caspian seas.
In 2023, she was named 'Multimedia Journalist of the Year' by the Seahorse Freight Association for her extensive investigation into the trade out of the occupied ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk.
Now Lloyd’s List’s senior risk and compliance analyst, Bridget focuses on the intersection of geopolitics and commercial shipping. She assesses the impact of conflict on seaborne trade, how the maritime industry adapts to sanctions and investigates tactics used by vessels to disguise illicit activities.
Latest From Bridget Diakun
Shadow tanker plausibly reverts to compliant trade after Venezuela loading
If the ship has lifted oil under the US licence legitimately, then it shows shadow fleet vessels can come in from the cold; if it has gone rogue, then the consequences could be severe
Venezuela’s shadow fleet sits idle after US intervention
More than 12m dwt of tonnage has been freed up since the US cut off the shadow fleet from the Venezuelan market
Red Sea traffic slows under seasonal challenges and increased security risk
Red Sea traffic fell for a second month in January as seasonal softness combined with rising geopolitical tension, pushing Suez and Bab el‑Mandeb volumes lower. Bulk and tanker activity weakened, but containership transits have slightly increased, highlighting a fragile, uneven recovery still constrained by volatile security conditions
Red Sea dark transits at two-year high
It is not unusual for owners and operators to take precautionary measures when passing through the Bab el Mandeb, but the growth in dark activity reveals changing dynamics in the area
False flag Baltic transits almost quadruple throughout 2025
The Nordic Baltic 8++ group of countries promised to take action against falsely flagged vessels in June 2025, but the problem only got worse after that
No shortage of targets for French interdiction in the Mediterranean
Should France want to follow up the seizure of stateless shadow fleet tanker Grinch with more interdictions, it will have no shortage of falsely flagged vessels transiting through the Mediterranean