You've given an explain statement of a select not of the CTAS. They may or may not be the same - quite possibly not given your CTAS is asking for parallel 4. You really need to confirm the actual execution plan in your 11.2.0.4 via DBMS_XPLAN.DISPLAY_CURSOR and ideally supplement this with information from real-time SQL monitoring via SELECT DBMS_SQLTUNE.REPORT_MONITOR(sql_id) FROM DUAL or from sample waits from ASH (both of which have extra licensing requirements). Or even better do an extended SQL trace. Hope this helps Dominic