Recommended Approach to Programmatically Backing Up/Restoring Oracle DB
If you want to clone prod. db into dev. env. regulary I would recommend you to use RMAN for whole database. Or exp/imp (expdp/impdp) for single schema.
RMAN is not easy to use for developers who have no Oracle experience, but finally you will find this approach fastest and safest.

If you're about to clone your prod db into some reporting server maybe you should look at "Active Data Guard".

In Oracle you will find the "right" technology for every purpose. The final decision will depend on your real need(goal).