Solved finally - The solution was to use the Oracle Managed Driver instead of the Unmanaged driver. This link was very helpful in explaining benefits along with the referenced video showing step by step how to make the change from unmanaged to managed. Oracle ODP.net Managed vs Unmanaged Driver
I also had to use a tnsnames-less configuration (copying tnsnames.ora didn't work for me as described in the video). I.e. I used Data Source=(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=myhost)(PORT=1521)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED)(SERVICE_NAME=orcl)));User Id=oracle_user;Password=oracle_pwd;" as part of my connection string. I've tested on three different systems so far and all seem to work
great. To make it easier to manage I just pull my parameters from my app/web.config file and populate the above string.