It seems that if you configured --enable-sigchild when you compiled PHP (which from my reading is required for you to use Oracle stuff), then return codes from proc_close() cannot be trusted.
Using proc_open's Example 1998's code on versions I have of PHP4 (4.4.7) and PHP5 (5.2.4), the return code is always "-1". This is also the only return code I can cause by running other shell commands whether they succeed or fail.
I don't see this caveat mentioned anywhere except on this old bug report -- http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=29123