<p>I am trying to create a report in SSRS2000 that will query an ORACLE database and pass one parameter, I am getting the following error message:</p>

<p>ORA-01036: illegal variable name/number 
But have been unable to find much help elsewhere on the web with this error code</p>

<p>I was hoping that this would be fairly simple to do, does anyone have any idea how to accomplish this task?</p>

Considering that these objects can vary per file size, and your computer's specs (bus speed, HD speed) affect this, the only way to be sure is to write your own benchmark.  Just create a simple for loop, count from 1 to 1000, and read the file inside the loop over and over (but do not create and destroy the objects inside the loop, just focus on the reading part).
Of course this whole exercise reeks of pre-optimization, which can lead to bad coding habit.  Just write your code in the most readable, simple fashion, and if there is a speed problem, refactor as needed.
But since it's a small amount of data, I would say it won't matter.