As I found out SQL*Loader, Oracle's tool, is much much faster than using DBI. You can check out Best method to load a csv file. Your best bet is to use the tools that your Database provides. In my case I used sqlldr and a PL/SQL procedure to load my data. It takes less than a minute to load the data into a temp table and then run the procedure to load it into the production table.

HTH,
Sam Gold