Oracle 11g Release 2

with employeebids (employeebidid, XMLBIDCONTENT) as (
select 100, to_clob('<Bid xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/LCC.Crew.FAReserves.wsvc.Entities.FAReserves">
  <AggressiveBidType></AggressiveBidType>
  <BidCriteria>
    <BidCriteria i:type="RapBidCriteria">
      <Value xmlns:d4p1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" i:type="d4p1:string">BAC</Value>
    </BidCriteria>
  </BidCriteria>
  <BidItem>RAP</BidItem>
  <BidName>BAC</BidName>
  <BidType>Standing</BidType>
  <CatsId>10023</CatsId>
  <EmployeeBidId>10620</EmployeeBidId>
  <EmployeeId>135289</EmployeeId>
  <EndDate>2015-03-29T00:00:00Z</EndDate>
  <IsAggressive>false</IsAggressive>
  <IsLodo>false</IsLodo>
  <IsOnPremiseReserve>false</IsOnPremiseReserve>
  <OperatingDate>2015-02-25T00:00:00Z</OperatingDate>
  <Priority>0</Priority>
</Bid>') from dual
)
select extract(XMLTYPE(XMLBIDCONTENT),'/Bid/BidName/text()') "REFERENCE"
  FROM  EMPLOYEEBIDS
   Where EmployeeBidID = 100;

REFERENCE
null

with employeebids (employeebidid, XMLBIDCONTENT) as (
select 100, to_clob('<Bid xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/LCC.Crew.FAReserves.wsvc.Entities.FAReserves">
  <AggressiveBidType></AggressiveBidType>
  <BidCriteria>
    <BidCriteria i:type="RapBidCriteria">
      <Value xmlns:d4p1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" i:type="d4p1:string">BAC</Value>
    </BidCriteria>
  </BidCriteria>
  <BidItem>RAP</BidItem>
  <BidName>BAC</BidName>
  <BidType>Standing</BidType>
  <CatsId>10023</CatsId>
  <EmployeeBidId>10620</EmployeeBidId>
  <EmployeeId>135289</EmployeeId>
  <EndDate>2015-03-29T00:00:00Z</EndDate>
  <IsAggressive>false</IsAggressive>
  <IsLodo>false</IsLodo>
  <IsOnPremiseReserve>false</IsOnPremiseReserve>
  <OperatingDate>2015-02-25T00:00:00Z</OperatingDate>
  <Priority>0</Priority>
</Bid>') from dual
)
SELECT extract(XMLBIDCONTENT,'/Bid/BidName/text()').getStringVal() "REFERENCE"
  FROM  EMPLOYEEBIDS
   Where EmployeeBidID = 100;

ORA-00932: inconsistent datatypes: expected - got -

with employeebids (employeebidid, xmlbidcontent) as (
select 100, to_clob('<Bid xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/LCC.Crew.FAReserves.wsvc.Entities.FAReserves">
  <AggressiveBidType></AggressiveBidType>
  <BidCriteria>
    <BidCriteria i:type="RapBidCriteria">
      <Value xmlns:d4p1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" i:type="d4p1:string">BAC</Value>
    </BidCriteria>
  </BidCriteria>
  <BidItem>RAP</BidItem>
  <BidName>BAC</BidName>
  <BidType>Standing</BidType>
  <CatsId>10023</CatsId>
  <EmployeeBidId>10620</EmployeeBidId>
  <EmployeeId>135289</EmployeeId>
  <EndDate>2015-03-29T00:00:00Z</EndDate>
  <IsAggressive>false</IsAggressive>
  <IsLodo>false</IsLodo>
  <IsOnPremiseReserve>false</IsOnPremiseReserve>
  <OperatingDate>2015-02-25T00:00:00Z</OperatingDate>
  <Priority>0</Priority>
</Bid>') from dual
)
select XMLQuery('/*:Bid/*:BidName/text()'
  passing XMLType(xmlbidcontent)
  returning content) as BidName
from employeebids
where EmployeeBidID = 100;

BIDNAME
BAC

with employeebids (employeebidid, xmlbidcontent) as (
select 100, to_clob('<Bid xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/LCC.Crew.FAReserves.wsvc.Entities.FAReserves">
  <AggressiveBidType></AggressiveBidType>
  <BidCriteria>
    <BidCriteria i:type="RapBidCriteria">
      <Value xmlns:d4p1="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" i:type="d4p1:string">BAC</Value>
    </BidCriteria>
  </BidCriteria>
  <BidItem>RAP</BidItem>
  <BidName>BAC</BidName>
  <BidType>Standing</BidType>
  <CatsId>10023</CatsId>
  <EmployeeBidId>10620</EmployeeBidId>
  <EmployeeId>135289</EmployeeId>
  <EndDate>2015-03-29T00:00:00Z</EndDate>
  <IsAggressive>false</IsAggressive>
  <IsLodo>false</IsLodo>
  <IsOnPremiseReserve>false</IsOnPremiseReserve>
  <OperatingDate>2015-02-25T00:00:00Z</OperatingDate>
  <Priority>0</Priority>
</Bid>') from dual
)
select XMLQuery('
    declare default element namespace 
      "http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/LCC.Crew.FAReserves.wsvc.Entities.FAReserves"; (: :)
    /Bid/BidName/text()'
  passing XMLType(xmlbidcontent)
  returning content) as BidName
from employeebids
where EmployeeBidID = 100;

BIDNAME
BAC