This is my syntax and works like a charm... CONNECT <mailto:SYSTEM@SHREENI _DEV> SYSTEM@SHREENI _DEV; CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY DAT_DIR AS '/export/home/oracle/expbackups/'; GRANT ALL ON DIRECTORY DAT_DIR TO CUSTOMER; DISCONNECT; CONNECT <mailto:CUSTOMER@CONTENT_DEV> CUSTOMER@SHREENI _DEV; CREATE TABLE CUSTOMER_EXT ( CUSTOMER_NAME VARCHAR2(80), ADDRESS1 VARCHAR2(120), CITY VARCHAR2(40), STATE CHAR(2), COUNTRY VARCHAR2(40), ZIP_CODE VARCHAR2(10), FIRST_NAME VARCHAR2(20), LAST_NAME VARCHAR2(20), EMAIL_ADDRESS VARCHAR2(120) ) ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL ( TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY DAT_DIR ACCESS PARAMETERS ( RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE BADFILE 'customer.bad' LOGFILE 'customer.log' FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL ( CUSTOMER_NAME, ADDRESS1, CITY, STATE, COUNTRY, ZIP_CODE, FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, EMAIL_ADDRESS ) ) LOCATION ('CUSTOMER_EXT.CSV') ) PARALLEL 4 REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;