A couple who attracted the attention of police by having sex at a petrol station in a Northern Territory town have been arrested.

Police were called to the service station in Adelaide River, 110 kilometres south of Darwin, to move the couple on last night.

But they soon discovered the car had been stolen from Jabiru earlier in the day.

Watch Commander Bob Harrison says police also found the driver was heavily intoxicated.

"We received a call that two persons were having sexual intercourse in the passenger seat of a vehicle at the petrol bowser," he said.

"We attended and we asked them to stop what they were doing and they didn't seem to want to, but they finally did.

"They were intoxicated and we arrested the driver for breath analysis and they gave a reading of 0.179 per cent."