If you create a table with an XMLTYPE column create table test (name varchar2(60), xml_col xmltype) ; You get the following error message Error starting at line 22 in command: create table test (name varchar2(60), xml_col xmltype) Error at Command Line:22 Column:0 Error report: SQL Error: ORA-43853: SECUREFILE lobs cannot be used in non-ASSM tablespace "TBS_3" To work around this problem all you need to do is define the Column storage for the XMLTYPE column to b a clob. SQL> create table test (name varchar2(60), xml_col xmltype not null) xmltype column xml_col store as clob SQL> insert into test values ('abc', xmltype(' World ')); SQL> select name, extractvalue(xml_col, '/hello') value from test3 Name Value ----------------- Hello World