I've had a similar issue before myself and I'd guess an index is not being used. By default DBD::Oracle binds all parameters as strings and this can lead to Oracle deciding that since the parameter is a string and that does not match an integer then the index will not be used. Remove your parameters and just do the entire SQL as a string and see if that improves it. If it does, you have probably hit this problem. Then you need to look at ora_type => ora_xxx and SQLCS_IMPLICIT. Search for my posting on the dbi-users list in the last 4 years where I had the same issue.