diff --git a/maven-obr-plugin/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/obr/plugin/ObrUtils.java b/maven-obr-plugin/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/obr/plugin/ObrUtils.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..571fbda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-obr-plugin/src/main/java/org/apache/felix/obr/plugin/ObrUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.felix.obr.plugin;
+
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+
+import org.apache.maven.model.Resource;
+
+
+/**
+ * Various OBR utility methods
+ * 
+ * @author <a href="mailto:dev@felix.apache.org">Felix Project Team</a>
+ */
+public class ObrUtils
+{
+    private static final String REPO_XML = "repository.xml";
+    private static final String OBR_XML = "obr.xml";
+
+
+    /**
+     * @param baseDir current base directory
+     * @param localRepository path to local maven repository
+     * @param obrRepository path to specific repository.xml
+     * @return URI pointing to correct repository.xml
+     */
+    public static URI findRepositoryXml( File baseDir, String localRepository, String obrRepository )
+    {
+        // Combine location settings into a single repository location
+        if ( null == obrRepository || obrRepository.trim().length() == 0 )
+        {
+            obrRepository = localRepository + '/' + REPO_XML;
+        }
+        else if ( !obrRepository.endsWith( ".xml" ) )
+        {
+            obrRepository = obrRepository + '/' + REPO_XML;
+        }
+
+        URI uri;
+        try
+        {
+            uri = new URI( obrRepository );
+        }
+        catch ( URISyntaxException e )
+        {
+            uri = null;
+        }
+
+        // fall-back to file-system approach
+        if ( null == uri || !uri.isAbsolute() )
+        {
+            File file = new File( obrRepository );
+            if ( !file.isAbsolute() )
+            {
+                file = new File( baseDir, obrRepository );
+            }
+
+            uri = file.toURI();
+        }
+
+        return uri;
+    }
+
+
+    /**
+     * @param resources collection of resource locations
+     * @return URI pointing to correct obr.xml, null if not found
+     */
+    public static URI findObrXml( Collection resources )
+    {
+        for ( Iterator i = resources.iterator(); i.hasNext(); )
+        {
+            Resource resource = ( Resource ) i.next();
+            File obrFile = new File( resource.getDirectory(), OBR_XML );
+            if ( obrFile.exists() )
+            {
+                return obrFile.toURI();
+            }
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+}